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Rivalry between Dems escalates ahead of congress
Rivalry between senior figures of the Democratic Party (PD) is increasing on the eve of the partyâs national congress as several wanting to contest the chairmanship have yet to receive official invitations to the quinquennial political event
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ivalry between senior figures of the Democratic Party (PD) is increasing on the eve of the party's national congress as several wanting to contest the chairmanship have yet to receive official invitations to the quinquennial political event.
Former House of Representatives speaker Marzuki Ali said on Tuesday that he was unsure of whether he would attend the congress as he had not received an official invitation to the congress.
Marzuki, who had expected the congress to offer equal opportunity for all senior party members to contest the chairmanship election, said he felt wary about attending the congress in Surabaya on Monday as the majority of functionaries had indicated that they would support party cofounder Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's re-election bid for the next five-year period.
He once criticized a small group of party elites who voiced support for Yudhoyono's re-election bid and urged the former president to reject his nomination to maintain his statesmanship following his two consecutive presidency terms in 2004 throughout 2014.
East Java Governor Soekarwo, one of several party elites supporting Yudhoyono's re-election bid, called on Marzuki and legislator Gede Pasek to drop their candidacy bids because they would not win support from congress participants.
Separately, the chairman of the party's executive board, Syarief Hassan, called on Marzuki to exercise patience until the official invitation to the congress had reached him.
'Marzuki is deputy chairman of the party's patron board and he will be invited to the congress. He should be patient,' he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.
He said Pasek would not be invited because he was only a party member, but he was welcome to attend even though he had no voting rights.
Yudhoyono recently declared his readiness to lead the party for another next five years, not to seek a position but to contribute to the party's performance in 2019 general election. (++++)
