National Mandate Party To Pick New Chairman

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The National Mandate Party the fifth largest party in last year's legislative election began its third national congress on Thursday in Batam, Riau Islands Province, with a main agenda of selecting a new party leader.The congress opened on Thursday (7/1) evening precedeed by work meeting in the day to agree on procedures for the congress followed by two separate press conference by two official candidates, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Radjasa and former lawmaker with the banking commission Dradjad Wibowo.Co-founder of the party Amien rais opened the meeting which was supposed to be opened by the current chairman Sutrisno Bachir. Sutrisno were not seen around the convention site. Amien said Sutrisno will present his accountability report to the congress in the evening.Furthermore Amien said he had met with both candidates in one occasion and said the party will accomodate both the winner and the loser in the selection. "There will be two leadership, the winner (will become) chairman the loser (will become) vice chairman.Amien said the party is targeting to grab the second position in the 2014 election. Founded in aftermath of Soeharto's downfall in 1998, the party ranked fifth in last year's election below Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, Golkar Party, Indonesia Democratic Party, Prosperous Justice party with 6,25 million votes or 6.1 percent of the popular vote, rising two positions from the 2004 election.MUNAWWAROH | RUMBADI DALLE