Ical Yet to Decide on Running for President

BANDAR LAMPUNG, KOMPAS.com - Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie said he had not yet decided whether he would run for president or not in 2014 or whether the party would nominate him as candidate as the issue would only be discussed later in 2012.

"Golkar has not yet named me or anybody else as its presidential candidate because the issue will only be discussed later in 2012," he said here on Monday.

He said he had instructed all party cadres to concentrate on winning the hearts and minds of the people so that they would choose Golkar in the general elections in 2014.

"Let the issue of supporting or not supporting become the agenda of 2012. Our focus now is on working," he said.

Regarding the losses suffered by Golkar candidates in several elections for district head and city mayor in the country recently Aburizal said he would evaluate it. "In elections there are losers and winners".

Aburizal received a Lampung traditional title from Lampung Governor Sjachroedin ZP who said that the title awarding had nothing to do with politics. Aburizal was born in Kalianda, South Lampung.

Sjachroedin is also the chairman of the regional chapter of the Indonesia Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP). Puan Maharani, the daughter of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri on Monday expressed her readiness to replace her mother as PDIP chairperson.

"As a cadre, I am ready to be put in any position, moreover if it is a mandate from the party," she said after opening a coordination meeting on political and inter-institutional relations of the East Kalimantan chapter of PDIP.

"My grandfather was a president, my mother was a president and in 2014, God willing, we will win," she said in her speech before the meeting’s participants.

Puan Maharani, now PDIP associate chairperson, is the grand daughter of first president Soekarno while her mother was president from 2002 to 2004.

Puan said she would run for president only if her mother would not run in 2014. She said she and all party components would stick to the decision of the party congress in Bali in 2010 to fully support Megawati to run for president in 2014.

Megawati has so far not yet expressed her intention to resign from candidacy. Puan said PDIP was optimistic it would garner up to 50 percent of votes in 2014 or 20 percent higher than the number collected in the 1999 general elections.

PDIP has so far won 113 regional elections or 43 percent of the country’s regional elections. Current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono could not be re-elected by law in 2014 as he has held the post for two terms.

A political marketing expert from state University of Indonesia, Prof Firmanzah, meanwhile said he predicted as of June 2012 some figures would make declarations on their candidacy.

"Based on 2004 experience two years before the presidential election former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso declared his candidacy," he said at a lecture in Jakarta on Monday.

He said political competition would begin as of June 2012 as all parties have to prepare themselves.