REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MALANG -- Chairman of the Advisory Board of Golkar party of Bali congress Akbar Tanjung calls for a joint national congress to end the split in the party leadership.

The party leadership has split into one elected in a national congress in Bali under Aburizal Bakrie and one elected in a national congress held later in Ancol, Jakarta, under Agung Laksono.

The two groups have agreed to a reconciliation but they have to agree on the way to reconcile.

"Golkar has to find a breakthrough immediately that the party would not be forsaken by the people, especially as elections for regional leaders would start early March," Akbar said here on Saturday.

There would be 204 regional elections all over the country including 16 in East Java, he told East Java regional leaders of the party.

There must be an immediate solution to the internal problem of the party, he repeated.

"We have offered a recommendation to be considered by the party central executive board (DPP) that is a reconciliation through a joint National Congress," he said.

The congress has to be approved by both sides so have the committee and the chairman of committee for the congress, he said.

"The duty of the joint congress is only to elect the general chairman. If agreed upon, who ever is elected has to be recognized as the new general chairman," he said.

He warned that if both sides failed to agree on the proposed joint national congress until the end of January 2015, Golkar would suffer a big loss in the regional elections.

"Meanwhile, other parties are already heating up the ir political engines," he said.

The split in the Golkar leadership began long before the national congress of Bali. It began before the presidential election.

Golkar won the second largest votes in the legislative election in April 2014 but it failed to come with a candidate to contest the presidency in July.

Aburizal then decided to join a coalition called Red and White Coalition (KMP) with presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto from the Gerindra party, which emerged as the third largest in the legislative election.

The move by Aburizal, however, was opposed by a number of other Golkar leaders, who gave their political support to Joko Widodo, whose running mate was Jusuf Kalla, a former general chairman of Golkar.

The Red and White coalition dominates the Parliament but lost the presidential election.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika