W

ith concurrent regional elections only 10 months away, the new Golkar Party leadership has rolled out its plan to consolidate party support at the grassroots level in a bid to secure a victory in the polls.

The party has been split into two factions, one led by tycoon Aburizal Bakrie and the other by Agung Laksono, whose leadership was recently recognized by Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly.

'€œWe plan to finish [grassroots consolidation] in eight months,'€ Golkar Party deputy chairman Yorrys Raweyai told reporters in Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Saturday. As the party suffers from ongoing internal rifts, divisions within the party have worsened, with dozens of provincial Golkar executives supporting the Aburizal camp.

In a declaration read out by chairman of Golkar'€™s Southeast Sulawesi chapter Ridwan Bae, the provincial executives considered Agung'€™s leadership of Golkar illegitimate.

Despite relatively strong support for Aburizal within the party, Yorrys believed that all party members and executives would eventually flock to Agung'€™s camp.

'€œIt'€™s only a matter of legality. The minister issued a decision and all [members] will come to us because there are many members that harbor no individual interests,'€ Yorrys said.

In a move to end the bickering, Yorrys said Golkar would send letters to members next Monday, instructing them to stop using symbols associated with Aburizal.

Yorrys also urged all party members to refrain from establishing new political parties, a move that had been made by past party members after being involved in a power struggle that did not go their way.

Some of Golkar'€™s former senior politicians who eventually left the party are Wiranto, Prabowo Subianto and Surya Paloh, who quit the party after losing an internal power struggle and went on to form their own parties.

As the oldest political party in the country, Golkar is a well-oiled political machine that has seen more than 300 of its members become regional leaders all over the country.

However, despite its long history as an established political party, political analyst Hendri Satrio of the Jakarta-based Paramadina University said the conflicts within Golkar could jeopardize the party'€™s prospects in upcoming regional elections.

'€œPeople are fed up with political parties. With this conflict, [Golkar'€™s] image is taking a beating. The best thing for [Golkar members] to do is reconcile their differences and remain calm,'€ he said on Saturday.

Analysts have predicted that candidate nominations in the fast-approaching regional elections will be complicated, since parties like Golkar and the United Development Party (PPP) are dealing with internal conflicts.

The PPP is divided between the leadership of senior politician Djan Faridz, who was appointed as the successor of former leader Sur-yadharma Ali, and the leadership of Muhammad '€œRomi'€ Romahurmuziy, the leader of a splinter group that defied Suryadharma'€™s leadership after the 2014 presidential election.

'€œThe potential for conflict is looming. If the parties do not mend their rifts, they will fight over who to nominate as a candidate,'€ Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini said on Wednesday.

But there are signs that the parties have started to get their acts together for the regional elections.

In the PPP, for instance, the camp of Djan finally agreed to hold reconciliation talks.

'€œWe realize that this rift has created divisions and we have agreed to unite,'€ he said during his camp'€™s national congress in Batam, Riau Islands.

Romi welcomed the idea of reuniting, saying that he was willing to accommodate Djan'€™s camp under his leadership.

'€œWe are ready to allow [Djan] to become the deputy chairman or other such position, expect for chairman and secretary-general,'€ he said on Saturday.