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Unstoppable SBY closes in on 2nd term as Dems boss
Last minute preparations: Former president and Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (left) inspects the venue of his partyâs fourth congress at the Shangri-La Hotel in Surabaya, East Java, Monday
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span class="inline inline-center">Last minute preparations: Former president and Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (left) inspects the venue of his party's fourth congress at the Shangri-La Hotel in Surabaya, East Java, Monday. At least 1,200 delegates are planning to attend the congress that will cost Rp 9 billion (US$684,000). Antara/Zabur Karuru
Even before the Democratic Party kicks off its fourth national congress on Tuesday, the leaders of the country's fourth largest political party have reiterated their confidence in the reelection of incumbent party chairman and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Yudhoyono, also known as SBY, will likely secure his reelection bid as the majority of the party's regional leaders have pledged their support to him, according to party executive chairman Syariefuddin 'Syarief' Hasan.
'As of today [Monday], the [congress'] steering committee has only seen official endorsements for [the candidacy of] Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Almost all of the party's regional branches have submitted their written support [for Yudhoyono's reelection],' Syarief said on Monday.
Party spokesman Hinca Panjaitan also predicted that Yudhoyono, who won in the 2004 and 2009 direct presidential elections in his capacity as Democratic Party chief patron, would score an easy win in the party's chairmanship race.
'Like a Formula One [car] race, the Democratic Party will use the congress as an opportunity to enter the pit stop and prepare to win [upcoming elections]. The driver, however, will remain the same as that is also part of our strategy,' he said.
Established in 2001, the Democratic Party slipped into fourth place in last year's legislative election after winning the 2009 legislative election.
The declining popularity of the former ruling party has been widely attributed to the arrest of several party leaders prior to the elections for their involvement in various graft cases.
Taking place in the East Java city of Surabaya, the party's two-day national congress will gather more than 500 leaders of its provincial and regional branches to discuss several items on the agenda, including the review of the party's rules of association (AD/ART) and the election of the party's new leader for the next five years.
Yudhoyono ' who took over the party's leadership from Anas Urbaningrum in 2013 after the latter was named a graft suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) ' has become the strongest candidate for the position, as the majority of the party's executives have declared support for Yudhoyono's reelection, citing his popularity and his widely perceived role as a key figure for the party.
A splinter group within the party, however, has condemned the party's elite for endorsing Yudhoyono's unanimous reelection, saying that the reelection will hamper leadership regeneration within the party.
Under the Caucus of the Democratic Party's Saviors (KPPD), a group of former leaders of the party's regional branches has claimed that 161 local party leaders have been recently discharged from their positions by the party's central board for opposing Yudhoyono's reelection bid.
In a press conference on Sunday evening, KKPD secretary M. Ikhsan ' who previously led the party's branch in Purbalingga regency, Central Java ' said the caucus was ready to increase the pressure on the party's leadership.
'Should the party refuse to respond by the time the congress begins, we could then hold a rival congress,' he said.
