GOLKAR PREPARES FIVE FIGURES AS VP CANDIDATE

Jakarta, April 16 (ANTARA) - Golkar Party executive Marzuki Darusman said the party had prepared at least five figures for consideration by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as his running mate in the presidential race in July.

The figures are Jusuf Kalla, Akbar Tanjung, Surya Paloh, Agung Laksono and Sultan Hamengku Buwono X. "They are the names we are going to offer to SBY (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) if a coalition with the Demcoratic Party is agreed on at the party's national leadership meeting on April 23 and if it is welcomed by SBY," he said at a press conference here on Thursday.

Golkar was now weighing if it will only seek the vice presidential position after the party was beaten by Yudhoyono's Democratic Party in the recent legislative elections as shown by the provisional vote counts.

Marzuki said the names of the five figures came up out of the party's internal need and because of fundamental changes that had happened in the political dynamics after the recent elections and the fact that Jusuf Kalla was no longer in a strong position to represent Golkar.

"The drastic drop in the party's vote collection is one of the reasons for it while from JK (Jusuf Kalla) himself we had not received a definitive signal that SBY agreed with the party's vice presidential nominee. JK only told Golkar ranks that there had been two agreements (with Yodhoyono), namely cooperation in the parliament and in the cabinet," he said.

He said other factors developing in the party were that the party had positively responded to SBY's idea that it would be better if memberrs of his cabinet were not also the top leaders of their respective parties.

"It could be said that it was a new factor that has enriched ideas within Golkar circles so that the party to respond to it positively and constructively upon consideration that it should not create a burden for SBY by proposing only one figure," he said.

Besides that, he said, the presence of Akbar Tanjung as a vice presidential nominee would not cause a problem within the party, adding the main internal problem of the party now was pros and cons on Jusuf Kalla's nomination.

"Resistence against Akbar Tanjung exists only within the party's executive board while in the regions he has wide support," he said.

He said this was what the party executive board had so far covered up. Therefore, he said, he now wished to unveil it and by doing so "we are being fair towards the Democratic Party and also SBY so that they can accept the condition in Golkar as it is now," he said.

***1***