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View all search resultsNU hands clerics greater power in historic change to leadership election
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Opening stage: A participant takes a photo in front of a banner for the 35th Nahdlatul Ulama National Congress (Muktamar NU) on Aug. 27 after the five-day conference opened at Untung Suropati Field in the sprawling complex of Pondok Pesantren Bahrul Ulum Tambakberas, an Islamic boarding school in Jombang regency, East Java. (Antara/Syaiful Arif)
N
ahdlatul Ulama (NU) has decided to elect its next chairman indirectly through a council of senior clerics, abandoning the one-member-one-vote system as disagreements persisted ahead of the planned election of chairman of the country’s largest Muslim organization on Sunday night.
The change was overwhelmingly approved during a plenary session at the group’s 35th national congress in Jombang, East Java, with 401 of 552 eligible delegates voting to have the Ahlul halli wal-aqdi (AHWA), a nine-member council of senior NU clerics, choose the group's chairman.
A total of 150 delegates voted to retain the direct voting system previously used to elect a chairman instead, while one ballot was declared invalid.
“With this, we have decided on the option for a change [in the voting system],” congress plenary chair Mohammad Nuh said on Sunday after announcing the result.
The decision was a first in the history of NU, which significantly expanded the role of the nine-member AHWA council that had traditionally been tasked only with selecting NU supreme leader, also known as Rais Aam.
Under the new arrangement, voting delegates representing NU regional branches will only nominate chairman candidates, leaving the final selection to the nine senior AHWA clerics.
Later on Sunday, delegates selected the AHWA members from 34 nominated clerics, with six hailing from East Java and the remaining three from Aceh, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and West Java.
