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Golkar adjusts its congress’ date to fit Jokowi’s schedule
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Vice President and senior Golkar Party member Jusuf Kalla (center), flanked by Agung Laksono (left) and Aburizal Bakrie (right) in Jakarta in May. 2015. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama )
T
he Golkar Party is scheduled to hold its Extraordinary National Congress on May 23 -- the latest date announced by the party’s chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, on Friday.
Aburizal said the latest schedule change had been instigated in order to align with the schedule of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as he is expected to kick off the congress. The main agenda of the congress meeting will be to elect new party chairman.
"I just received news from Pak Jokowi's member of presidential details, who said that he would open the congress on May 23," Aburizal told reporters, before hosting a lunch for participants of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Jakarta.
Over recent months, the congress schedule has been revised at least four times. Less than a week ago Aburizal announced that the congress would be held on May 25 to 27, a revision to the announcement made by congress steering committee chairman Nurdin Halid saying that the congress date had been altered from May 7 to May 17.
It seems that the presence of President Jokowi is very important for Golkar, so much so that it has been willing to chop and change its congress date to accommodate Jokowi.
“The party is looking for the perfect time, so Jokowi will be able to attend the congress,” said congress chief organizer Theo L. Sambuaga.
"We really hope he will attend our national congress," Theo said, accompanying Aburizal on Friday.
The Law and Human Rights Ministry has issued a decree to extend the Riau congress leadership, which expired in 2014. As part of the effort to end the party leadership conflict, the decree was issued to allow the party time to organize a congress.
Golkar split into two factions over a year ago. The faction led by Aburizal was chosen by a congress in Bali in November 2014, while the other faction is led by Agung Laksono as per his election win at a conflicting congress in Dec. 2015, in Ancol, Jakarta.
Based on the Riau congress, Aburizal is party chairman, Agung is deputy chairman and Idrus Marham is secretary-general. (bbn)
