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Challenger Zulkifli confident against rival incumbent
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Zulkifli Hasan said he was confident about his chances of taking over the leadership of the National Mandate Party (PAN) from incumbent Hatta Rajasa in a voting session, which was set to take place on Sunday evening, a day earlier than initially planned
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eople's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Zulkifli Hasan said he was confident about his chances of taking over the leadership of the National Mandate Party (PAN) from incumbent Hatta Rajasa in a voting session, which was set to take place on Sunday evening, a day earlier than initially planned.
Zulkifli said he and Hatta had agreed to speed up voting, adding that the decision was made after supporters of the two competing camps resorted to violence earlier in the day.
"Inshallah [God willing] everything will run smoothly tonight," he told the press on the sidelines of the party's fourth national congress in Nusa Dua, Bali, which began on Saturday
Zulkifli went on to say that he was confident about defeating Hatta, whom he referred to as " brother", despite the latter's predicted victory by pollsters. He stressed that the party would witness something new by the end of the day.
A joint study by the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Cyrus Network previously predicted that Hatta would secure 42.77 percent of the vote from PAN leaders at the regency and municipal levels while Zulkifli would only garner 38.64 percent.
As many as 592 party executives from PAN's branches nationwide will cast their votes.A candidate must secure at least 297 votes to win. (ebf)(++++)
