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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s attendance at a United Development Party (PPP) national meeting in Jakarta on Friday has been seen as a political victory for the President and the Islamist party’s leader, Muchammad Romahurmuziy.

For years, Romahurmuziy, also known as Romi, has been struggling to gain full control of the party amid opposition from rival Djan Faridz, who has challenged his legitimacy as PPP leader and has been building good relations with the President’s allies.

Friday’s attendance of Jokowi at a party meeting led by Romi, however, has apparently given him the assurance that the President is standing behind him. He used the opportunity to call on Djan to join him in supporting Jokowi’s re-election in 2019.

“I am making this call in front of the President for the two of us to reconcile to rebuild the party after years of turbulence,” Romi said in his address to leaders of the party’s branches across the country. “Legally, the leadership dispute is over, but politically it is not. That is why I use this moment to call for the party’s unity.”

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Romi in his legal dispute with Djan.

In a move to assert the PPP’s loyalty to Jokowi, Romi invited the President to close the national meeting on Friday so that Romi could officially name Jokowi as the party’s candidate in the 2019 presidential election.

“Today, the meeting ended and all participants agreed that the PPP will support Jokowi again as a presidential candidate in 2019. We are the PPP and we are Jokowi,” said Romi, whose announcement was greeted by the chanting of “God is great!” by participants.

The PPP has thus become the first Islamist party to officially endorse Jokowi’s re-election, which could boost Jokowi’s credentials as a Muslim leader amid the expected negative campaigns by his opponents who often question his faith and even accuse him of being a “communist” or “anti-Islam.”

Following major sectarian rallies that called for the blasphemy prosecution of then Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, an ally of Jokowi, in the capital last year, the President vowed to get tough on radical Islamic groups that he believed were trying to replace the state ideology of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution with a religious regime.

On Wednesday, the government announced that it had banned Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), an Islamist group that promoted the creation of caliphate.

Speaking after Romi, Jokowi did not address the PPP’s endorsement of his possible re-election bid in 2019. In his speech, Jokowi said that all Muslims must be united in the country to help build the economy.

Jokowi used the moment to tell PPP politicians who are members of the Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD) in 34 provinces across the country that he had signed a presidential regulation increasing the salaries of DPRD members.

“Because most of the participants here are DPRD members, I know that for 20 years it [their salaries] did not increase. This announcement will make you all happy. I have signed [a regulation about it],” Jokowi said.

The PPP has since 2014 been embroiled in a conflict over who should lead the party.

The power struggle within the PPP dates back to the days approaching the presidential election that year with members taking different stances on political support for the two contesting pairs: the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla ticket and the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa ticket.

Then PPP chairman Suryadharma threw his party’s support behind Prabowo, a decision that was challenged by Romi and his followers, who claimed the chairmanship after the presidential election and pledged to support President Jokowi’s administration.