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llegations of vote buying have marred the National Mandate Party'€™s (PAN) national congress, where party executives are expected to vote for a new chairman, despite earlier claims to promote '€œa clean and fair fight'€ by the two competing candidates, incumbent Hatta Rajasa and challenger Zulkifli Hasan.

Soon after the party'€™s fourth national congress began in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Saturday, the campaign teams of the two candidates stepped up efforts to take what many called '€œsafety measures'€ to ensure that the leaders of
PAN'€™s municipal and provincial branches voted for their selected candidates. A vote for the party'€™s chairmanship is expected to take place on Sunday.

A member of Zulkifli'€™s team said his camp had stepped up efforts to safeguard the votes of 368 leaders of PAN'€™s branches at the provincial, regency and municipal levels who had pledged to give their support to the current People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker.

'€œAll of the supporters are kept in separate hotels to avoid scenarios where they are approached and change their minds,'€ said the team member, who wished to remain anonymous.

'€œThey have also been given new cell phone numbers that the other camp has no knowledge of, so we avoid any unwanted communication. All communication must go through the campaign coordinator,'€ added the source.

The Hatta camp resorted to the same measures.

Hatta'€™s campaign team gathered around 400 of the party'€™s local leaders, who have been in Bali since Wednesday, at an event during which they were involved in activities that aimed to strengthen ties between Hatta loyalists as well as nurture a '€œsense of belonging'€ among the camp.

Despite pledges of civility ahead of the congress, tensions ran high with the members of both camps being suspicious of the other side'€™s moves.

Both camps have also accused each other of playing '€œdirty tricks'€.

Senior PAN politician Tjatur Sapto Edy, a member of Hatta'€™s camp, alleged that the rival group had involved a certain '€œpowerful'€ figure to influence the camp'€™s supporters into changing their preference.

Zulkifli'€™s camp made a similar allegation.

In a press briefing hours before the opening ceremony of the congress, Zulkifli, in his response to allegations of vote buying, strongly warned against possible interference.

'€œWe hope that no external parties are involved in PAN'€™s congress,'€ he said.

A Hatta victory would likely change PAN'€™s stance, from one of opposition in the House of Representatives to a non-partisan position, much like the Democratic Party.

A Zulkifli victory would likely mean PAN would remain in the Red-and-White Coalition and become a staunch critic of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s administration, a stance promoted by the party'€™s co-founder Amien Rais, who is also Zulkifli'€™s in-law.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Amien slammed Hatta for lying about his meeting with Jokowi and NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh in September last year.

The party'€™s chairmanship is expected to be determined by PAN'€™s 592 local leaders who are eligible to cast their votes.

Hatta or Zulkifli must secure at least 297 votes to win the race.

Also on Saturday, Hatta told his supporters during the opening ceremony that '€œwhoever wins the race must ensure PAN remains united'€.

Hatta, the former vice presidential candidate of Prabowo Subianto in last year'€™s presidential election, is predicted to win the PAN leadership battle.

A joint study conducted by the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Cyrus Network, predicted 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.

A number of high-profile politicians from political parties within the opposition coalition, including Prabowo, attended the opening ceremony.