Tension within the Golkar Party is brewing, as an open broadside unleashed by some party members against the presidential bid of chairman Airlangga Hartarto in next year’s election has prompted some of his other colleagues to express readiness to take over his post in a snap party poll.

Several senior Golkar politicians have begun presenting themselves as viable alternatives to Airlangga to help rejuvenate the country’s oldest party, which is facing a dip in popularity ahead of the 2024 presidential and legislative elections. Airlangga has been eyeing to run for president despite his persistently low electability in various opinion polls.

Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, who chairs the party’s advisory board and serves as the coordinating maritime affairs and investment minister in the Cabinet, suggested in an interview with Kompas TV last week that he was ready to contest the party leadership poll to replace Airlangga if there was support among members.

While he stressed that he preferred to not have any fight with Airlangga, Luhut took aim at the current leadership for “appearing to be selling itself short, offering itself to too many”.

“It’s disheartening to see Golkar continue to sink,” Luhut said. “If one can't be a presidential, vice presidential candidate, we have other things to attend to: bolstering [our performance] in legislative elections […] Do not let our ambitions lead us to our own downfall.”

Another member considering a bid for the party’s top post is Bahlil Lahadalia, a 46-year-old long-time entrepreneur who is serving as the investment minister. Despite claiming in 2019 to have quit Golkar, Bahlil said he was concerned with the party’s declining electability and “felt a responsibility” to lend the party a helping hand.

"I think, as a party member who grew up with [Golkar], [anyone would] be concerned seeing their party’s electability having fallen to 6 percent. And all members who meet the requirements will definitely feel a call of duty," Bahlil told a group of media leaders on Saturday, as quoted by several media.

Both Luhut and Bahlil have been mentioned by two senior Golkar members, Ridwan Hisjam and Lawrence Siburian, who have been calling for Airlangga’s removal, as among a handful of potential candidates who could contest the party’s chairmanship. The list also includes People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Bambang Soesatyo and Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita.

Rumblings of discontent within Golkar became apparent earlier this month after Ridwan and Lawrence openly pinned the blame for the party’s worsening performance on Airlangga’s poor electability and failure to consolidate the party’s machinery at the grassroots level. They called for an extraordinary congress to replace Airlangga should he fail to form an “alternative electoral alliance” to secure his presidential ticket by August.

Under Airlangga, who was elected to the top post in 2019, the party’s electability rating has nosedived into a single digit in the run-up to the February 2024 legislative and presidential elections. The latest opinion poll from the Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI), conducted from July 1 to 8, found that Golkar’s electability fell to only 6 percent from 11 percent in August 2022.

Airlangga and his top allies, however, have said they had no intention to hold an extraordinary congress in the near future and anyone wishing to run for the party’s top post is welcome to do so when his term ends in 2024.

But putting Airlangga on the ballot has been also challenging for Golkar, which has not enough seats in the legislature to pass the 20 percent presidential threshold to field a candidate on its own.

Golkar formed one of the earliest electoral alliances for the 2024 elections, the United Indonesia Coalition (KIB), with two smaller parties – the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP). The alliance, however, failed to name a strong contender to rival the frontrunners in most public opinion polls.

As Golkar gradually lost its bargaining power, the PPP decided in April to join the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in backing its presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo. PAN, meanwhile, has been exploring options with other parties to name State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir as a running mate.

It remains to be seen whether the tensions within Golkar will escalate, but analyst Firman Noor of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said the party would face more damaging electoral losses if changing leadership only a few months before the November deadline for presidential candidate registration.

“That's because their focus would be directed toward resolving internal conflict, which could drag on for a long time, rather than to win the elections,” Firman said.