"Yudhoyono is ready to be named PD general chairman if there is an executive chief who would help him carry out daily tasks. And this is an easy thing because he can just appoint one," Ramadhan Pohan said moments before the opening of PD extraordinary congress here on Saturday.
Ramadhan said the executive chairman would be appointed only if Yudhoyono was named PD general chairman. If another candidate was named general chairman, the executive chairman would not be needed, he added.
"If the other candidate is elected, there is no need to appoint an executive chairman. Yudhoyono as incumbent president of the Republic of Indonesia is very busy so that he would need an executive one," Ramadhan said.
He denied that the formation of two posts, the general chairman and the executive chairman, would create dualism in the PD leadership.
"The general chairman would have the task of handling external matters such as cooperation with other parties. The executive one would have to handle internal relations of the executive boards from the party`s chapters in the sub-district to the boards in district and provincial levels," he said.
He said that the executive chairman would have to be appointed directly by the general chairman if Yudhoyono, who is also the party`s chief patron and Supreme Council chairman, is elected.
But Ramadhan said he did not know any names who were likely to be appointed an executive chairman, including the names of Marzuki Alie and Toto Rianto, who are deputy chairmen of the party`s supreme council.
The extraordinary congress is held to elect the party`s new chief after former chief Anas Urbaningrum resigned following his naming as a suspect in a corruption case by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
The election is important because by law only party`s chief is allowed to sign the list of legislative candidates that should be submitted to the General Elections Commission (KPU) soon before the legislative elections in 2014.
It was earlier scheduled that the congress would take place for two days on March 30-31, 2013.
But because most of the provincial and district boards have expressed aspirations to name Yudhoyono, the party`s new general chairman could soon be elected and the congress could be shortened with consensus.
(A014/F001)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
