REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Golkar’s determination to endorse the Chairman of Golkar, Aburizal Bakrie, as the candidate for presidential election in 2014 is solid. The votes in Regional Representatives Council also support Bakrie. With five other parties, Golkar is a member of the ruling coalition today.
“The endorsement of Bakrie is through some consideration,” the Deputy Secretary of Golkar, Nurul Arifin, said on Tuesday.
She said, Bakrie’s plan to announce his candidacy on next June in Sentul was realistic because as the chairman, Bakrie had met the requirements. “If age becomes the matter, it is not the problem. As long as the requirements are fulfilled,” she said.
Bakrie is quite controversial as his company involved in Lapindo mud flood tragedy. Criticism also comes from other party. The Chairman of Patron Board of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Taufiq Kiemas said on Monday that Bakrie was too old to run for president. He suggested the party to pick a younger candidate to run for president.