Regional branches of the Golkar Party are refusing to acknowledge the pairing of chairman Jusuf Kalla with head of the People’s Consience Party (Hanura) Wiranto as candidates for July’s presidential election.

Chairmen from various branches are demanding the party hold an extraordinary meeting to ask for an explanation from Kalla on the party’s failure to win the legislative election, which could lead to Kalla’s unseating.

“Their declaration does not comply with the party’s internal mechanisms. The chairman should have consulted with all the party’s stakeholders before making any crucial and strategic decisions,” Golkar’s Malang regency chairman, Aris Budjonegoro, said at the House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker’s office in Jakarta on Monday.

“Therefore, along with the other regional branch heads, I am here to meet with Agung Laksono to express our concern and to request that an extraordinary national meeting commence immediately,” he added.

Aside from being head of the DPR, Agung is the deputy chairman of Golkar.

Aris said he brought along 50 other regional branch heads with him to meet with Agung, and that they represented the will of more than 200 of Golkar’s branches located throughout Indonesia.

Aris said that Kalla should explain his political moves and strategy in the meeting.

“This is in line with one of the clauses from the result of the previous leadership meeting. The meeting states that the chairman has full authority to commence any necessary political communication, therefore he should explain the development of his moves and strategies in the next meeting,” he said.

The chairman’s nomination was considered by the party’s regional branches as an unwise and emotional decision because it ended the coalition with the winners of the legislative elections, the Democratic Party (PD), Aris said.

“We are still seeing that the most rational decision is to maintain a coalition with PD,” Aris said.

The PD wanted Golkar to nominate more than one potential vice presidential candidate for incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) to run with in the July presidential election.

Kalla and his camp, however, decided to name just Kalla, whose loyalty to SBY had come in to question after he declared his wish to run for president during campaign rallies.

SBY has stressed the importance of having a loyal vice presidential candidate.

Agung said that he would make the input of the region branches a top priority and would present their thoughts to Kalla as soon as possible.

“We are going to have a plenary meeting tomorrow with the other central board executives along with the Golkar chairman. I will directly present their concerns to Pak Kalla as soon as possible,” he said.

Agung added that he thought it would be wiser for the party to listen to the regional branches’ wishes and hold another leadership meeting as soon as possible.

“I think it will be bad for Golkar if they [regional branches] fail to get what they want,” he said.

However, Burhanuddin Napitupulu, Golkar deputy chairman and one of Kalla’s close aides, played down the concerns of the regional branches, saying the majority of them supported the Kalla-Wiranto partnership. (hdt)

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