GOLKAR BELIEVES IT IS STILL BEST PARTY

Jakarta, jan 6 (ANTARA) - Golkar believes and is optimistic it will remain the choice of most voters in the legislative elections to be held in April this year, one of its leaders said here on Tuesday.
Burhanuddin Napitupulu, the party's executive board member, said at a discussion on "pros and cons on political polling and surveys" at the party's headquarters that not only this time (three months ahead of the general elections) that Golkar had been predicted to be able to collect insignificant votes.
Everyone said that Golkar is finished but "we, who are inside ( party executives), are not feeling like that," he said.
Burhanuddin said the fact was that in the 1999 general elections Golkar was still ranked second after the Indonesia Democratic Party Struggle (PDIP) winning 120 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR).
At the time many Golkar offices in the regions were vandalized or even burned and many party cadres were also afraid to wear Golkar costumes, he said.
He said ahead of the 2004 general elections Golkar had also been predicted to win insignificant votes but it had even come out as the winner for the legislative institution.
In view of that, he said, all party ranks were convinced and did not believe the results of surveys so far that predicted a decline in the number of Golkar voters in the upcoming general elections.
He said surveys that predicted a decline in Golkar votes were conducted as manouvers to marginalize the party. "We do not trust them very much and are not convinced by their results," he said.
He said his confidence that Golkar would still win the most votes was based upon the party's infrastructure network which was strong and spreading evenly down to the villages as well as the number of Golkar cadres in the community that was increasing.