NO NEED FOR GOLKAR TO PROPOSE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEES

Jakarta, April 20 (ANTARA) - Senior figure of Golkar, Siswono Yudhohusodo, said that the party had no need to propose a vice presidential nominee to team up with Democratic Party presidential hopeful Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the coming July presidential race.

"If Golkar puts forward a vice presidential nominee but rejected, it will bring shame to the party," Yudhohusodo said here on Sunday.
He said that it would be better for Golkar to leave it to Yudhoyono himself to decide on a nominee of his own choice.
According to Yudhohusodo, a vice presidential nominee should be able to cooperate with the presidential candidate and it would be up to Yudhoyono to judge it.
"What would happen if Golkar proposes several names but none was accepted. If the Democratic Party needs our cadres, it will surely come to us," he said.
On the possibility of Golkar to nominate its own presidential hopeful, Yudhohusodo said that there was still a possibility for that. But for sure, he said, it should not be incumbent general chairman Jusuf Kalla.
He said that under Kalla's leadership Golkar's popular support in the recent legislative elections dropped drastically. "It is not appropriate for a chairman who had caused a decline in popular support to be nominated as a presidential candidate," he added.
The Golkar Party is expected to hold a special national leadership meeting next Thursday to discuss names of cadres who would be proposed as a presidential candidate or a vice presidential nominee.
Golkar Party executive Marzuki Darusman said recently the party had prepared five candidates for consideration by Yudhoyono as his running mate. Darusman mentioned Jusuf Kalla, Akbar Tanjung, Surya Paloh, Agung Laksono and Sultan Hamengku Buwono X.
"They are the names we are going to be offered to Yudhoyono if a coalition with the Democratic Party is agreed on at the party's national leadership meeting on April 23 and if it is accepted by Yudhoyono," he said.