Senior politicians of the Golkar Party have once again voiced their doubts over the leadership of chairman Airlangga Hartarto ahead of the 2024 general election, calling for an extraordinary congress to remove him should he fail to forge an alternative electoral alliance to secure support for his presidential candidacy.

Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday, some of Golkar's advisory council and senior figures blasted Airlangga for the party’s “unclear direction” ahead of presidential and legislative elections next year, blaming it as the cause of the party’s declining electability, and called for an extraordinary congress to replace him.

“We ask openly for a leadership meeting [to schedule] an extraordinary congress to replace Airlangga from the Golkar’s chairmanship for the sake of Golkar’s greatness and progress,” senior politician Lawrence Siburian told reporters.

Lawrence, along with several senior Golkar politicians, said that they were “very concerned” about the state of the party under Airlangga's leadership ahead of the elections and feared that the country’s oldest party and the second-largest party in the House of Representatives would face devaluation.

“In our national meeting [Munas] and leadership meeting [Rapimnas], Golkar has decided that Airlangga will run as our presidential candidate. But he has not done anything until today,” Lawrence said.

“We are all healthy, rational and sane people who can see all the facts, analyze the situations and have hope. We do not want to let our big party, Golkar, go downhill becoming a middle-tier or a low-tier party.”

Lawrence blamed Airlangga for focusing more on helping President Joko “Jokowi’” Widodo’s since serving as coordinating economic minister in the Cabinet over navigating the party ahead of the elections.

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