Participants of the 33rd muktamar (national congress) of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country'€™s largest Islamic organization, in Jombang, East Java, had completed by Tuesday evening most of the congress'€™ agenda, including recommendations on contemporary issues like the death penalty. The participants, however, had yet to elect the organization'€™s new leaders.

The election process for the organization'€™s rais aam (supreme leader) and chairman was scheduled to start at 11 p.m. on Tuesday in a plenary meeting, with prominent cleric Mustofa '€œGus Mus'€ Bisri and incumbent NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj likely to be elected as rais aam and re-elected as chairman, respectively.

Aji Hermawan, chairman of the congress'€™ commission on organization, said a forum of senior ulema and members of the NU legal body had earlier agreed that the election of the supreme leader would not be decided through a voting mechanism.

'€œThe forum agreed that the election of rais aam would be decided in a consensus,'€ Aji said late Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the election of NU chairman, he added, would be conducted through a voting system in a plenary meeting on Wednesday, the final day of the muktamar.

Sources at the plenary meeting said that NU senior clerics might elect Gus Mus, who currently serves as the organization'€™s acting supreme leader, because of his ability to calm down the disgruntled congress participants who were involved in quarrels on Monday regarding the mechanism of NU'€™s leadership elections.

Rivalry between supporters of candidates for NU supreme leader and chairman were heating up from the beginning of the congress, which was officially opened by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo on Saturday night.

Participants also nominated former NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi, a member of the Presidential Advisory Board, to be supreme leader and Jombang-based Tebuireng Islamic boarding school leader Salahuddin '€œGus Sholah'€ Wahid to be chairman.

During the 2004 first direct presidential election, Hasyim served as running mate for Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman and presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri. Gus Sholah, the youngest brother of the country'€™s fourth president, Abdurrahman Wahid, ran as vice presidential candidate with presidential candidate Wiranto, who was endorsed by the Golkar Party.

The NU central board earlier proposed that its supreme leader should be elected through a council of selected senior ulema, called the Ahlul Halli Wal Aqdi (AHWA). The board said such a mechanism would avoid conflict among senior clerics who are eyeing the supreme leader position.

Earlier on Tuesday, participants and clerics, who discussed bahtsul masail (contemporary issues), managed to complete the NU recommendations on several issues, including a proposal to impose the death penalty on those convicted of committing corruption.

NU'€™s Bahtsul Masail Institute deputy chairman Arwani Faisal said the forum viewed capital punishment for corrupt officials as not being a violation of human rights because of the destructiveness of the crime. '€œ[The death penalty] is worthwhile, having an educational factor and as a firm warning to those who commit the crime, as well as the only deterrent effect [to corrupt officials].'€

The forum also concluded that the national health insurance (JKN) managed by the Social Security Management Agency (BPJS) was halal. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) earlier stated that JKN was haram, as it was managed like a profitable insurance company and applied riba (interest).

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