Dems will wait for in-house survey results: SBY

JAKARTA. The Democratic Party will be conducting a survey by the end of the April to measure the electability of its presidential convention participants.

The party's founder, chief patron and chairman, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said at a press briefing broadcast on YouTube account Suara Demokrat that the party would take note if the results indicated that the convention participants were unable to compete with other presidential candidates.

In the meantime, he said, the 11 participants had been told to increase their electability ratings.

“If we do not come up with our own presidential candidate, then the Democratic Party can still lend its support to another presidential candidate, but that will be determined later,” he said.

The President issued the statement in light of the three main contenders for the presidential election — Aburizal Bakrie, chairman of the Golkar Party, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Prabowo Subianto from the Gerindra Party.

Commenting on his party's view regarding a possible coalition, Yudhoyono said the Democrats could enter a coalition with other parties as long as there was an agreed platform and similar visions and policies.

However, he added, if the party was asked to join a coalition merely so that another party could meet the presidential threshold, the Democratic Party would refuse the invitation as there would be no advantage.

Among the Democrats' convention participants are State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, former trade minister Gita Wirjawan, former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret) Pramono Edhy Wibowo and former Indonesian Military (TNI) chief (ret) Gen. Endriartono Sutarto. (put/nvn)