Zannuba 'Yenny' Arrifah Chafsoh, the daughter of late president Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid, has decided to decline an offer to join the Democratic Party, a move which many have said was due to the ruling party's failure to provide enough incentives.

Yenny, currently chairwoman of the New Indonesian National Sovereignty Party (PKBIB), finally declined to take the offer following a series of talks between her and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

'I am grateful for the offer from the President and all the Democratic Party executives. I can only hope that the party will be able to mend its battered image and regain its focus to fight for the people,' Yenny said in a press conference at PKBIB headquarters on Tuesday.

Yenny said she had directly told Yudhoyono about her decision and that the Democratic Party chairman had accepted it.

Yenny said her decision was endorsed by nine senior clerics from Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Islamic organization.

She said the clerics mostly came from East and West Java.

'The clerics told me to stay out of [the Democratic Party]. So now our political effort will be this: We are not going anywhere but will be present everywhere. I hope this will bring more benefit to us all,' she said.

Yudhoyono offered Yenny the chance to join his party shortly after the Jakarta State Administrative High Court rejected a PKBIB bid to overturn the General Elections Commission (KPU) decision to
disqualify it from contesting the 2014 legislative election.

Yenny said that, ultimately, the Democratic Party's offer came too late, as many PKBIB politicians had joined other parties to run in the legislative election.

Analysts have said Yenny made her decision once she discovered that her name was absent from the provisional line-up of the Democratic Party's central executive board.

A number of Democratic Party politicians were cynical in response to Yenny's announcement.

Veteran Democratic Party politician Ruhut Sitompul said Yenny was disappointed because her prospect of becoming the party's deputy chair had came to nought.

It has been widely reported that senior Democratic Party politicians balked at the prospect of Yenny being named deputy chair.

'It is normal that party members reacted negatively to the prospect of her becoming one of the deputy chairs. We have all fought for this party for a long time and are much more appropriate [choices] to fill those positions. That is known as a 'career path',' Ruhut said.

Suaidi Marasabessy, a long-standing Democratic Party member, echoed Ruhut's comments. 'The new line-up of our central executive board was almost finalized; it could not accommodate her ambition [to become a deputy chair]. That is what probably led to her decision [to decline the merger],' he said.

Yenny, however, denied that she was a power-hungry politician. 'My discussions with SBY never touched on political position. My decision to remain outside the Democratic Party has nothing to do with that,' she said.

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