President Yudhoyono (SBY) expressed the hope here on Sunday on the sidelines of a debate held at Hotel Sahid as part of the convention to nominate the partys presidential candidate for the election on July 9.
The party has decided to finish the convention program despite the fact that it failed to collect enough votes in the legislative elections on April 9 to meet the presidential threshold.
"This debate is very important for the people to know ideas and solutions offered before they cast their votes later," SBY, the partys general chairman, said.
Not only the ruling Democrat Party but other parties as well have failed to win enough votes in the recent legislative elections to meet the presidential threshold.
Even the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) that won the most votes in the elections could only garner around 19 percent of votes, far below the presidential threshold set at 25 percent.
The Democrat Party that won a landslide victory in the general elections in 2009 meanwhile bagged only around nine percent votes according to unofficial quick vote counts so far, after it was mired in problems following the conviction of some of its officials in corruption cases.
In views of that parties have to coalesce with other parties in order to be able to meet the threshold and so far no party has been able to form one.
The PDIP, the Golkar Party and Gerindra, the three top vote getters in the legislative elections, also have so far not been able to determine the running mates of their presidential candidates, opening an opportunity for other parties to offer one.
Eleven figures have taken part in the Democrat Partys convention. They include State Audit Board member Ali Masykur Musa, university rector Anis Baswedan, state enterprises minister Dahlan Iskan, former ambassador Dino Patti Djalal, former military chief Endriartono Sutarto, former trade minister Gita Wiryawan, former minister Hayono Isman, chairman of the Regional Representatives Council Irman Gusman, house speaker Marzuki Alie, former army chief of staff Pramono Edhie Wibowo and provincial governor Sinyo Harry Sarundajang.
The secretary general of the convention committee, Suaidi Marasabessy, has said that the results of the convention would be later submitted to Yudhoyono as chairman of the partys Supreme Council on May 15.
He said the party has also hired three survey institutes to help find who has the highest electability among the convention participants.
He said it will be the Supreme Council that would decide the partys presidential candidate.
Rangga Panda Asmara Jingga
(H-YH/A014)
(H-YH/A014)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
