"It is the advisory board that will determine (the candidate) after the results of the elections are known," Hidayat Nur Wahid noted in between the campaign in Cilandak, South Jakarta, on Friday.
Right now three figures are competing for nomination namely party president Anis Matta, West Java governor Ahmad Heryawan and he himself, he added.
He elaborated that if Ahmad Heryawan is able to get significant votes in West Java or if Anis Matta could garner high number of votes nationally, then that will be one of the factors that will be used to determine their candidacies.
"That is what we call a public test phase. Besides that we will also use survey results to determine the right figure," he added.
He pointe out that PKS will only act with regard to presidential candidacy if the party is able to collect 10 percent of total votes in the legislative elections minimally.
"If we can collect only five percent, well, we need not talk much. Only if we can collect up to 10 percent, will we be able to say whether we will submit a presidential or vice presidential candidate through coalition," he elaborated.
Based on the election law, only a party or a group of parties that can collect 25 percent national votes in the elections or secure 20 percent of parliamentary seats, minimum, is allowed to nominate its own presidential and vice presidential candidate.
Twelve national political parties will participate in the legislative elections on April 9, while three local parties in Aceh will only participate in the local electorate.
PKS, in the last general elections in 2009, finished fourth, collecting 7.86 percent of the votes after Democrat Party, Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party Struggle.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
