JAKARTA. Golkar Party deputy chairman Theo L. Sambuaga said on Monday that senior politicians within the party, including vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla, had agreed that a national congress could only take place in 2015.

Theo said the proposal to hold a national congress in October this year, which is expected to elect a new chairman to replace Aburizal Bakrie, had come from only a handful of people within the party.

One of that small group was Agung Laksono, also a Golkar deputy chairman.

“Back then [in 2009], then-party chairman Pak Jusuf Kalla made the proposal to hold the congress [in 2015],” Theo was quoted as saying by tribunnews.com.

Theo said that Kalla’s proposal was then adopted as the party’s formal decision during the 2009 national congress.

“It was a decision from the national congress, the highest decision-making forum in the party,” he said.

In recent months, Golkar has been rocked by infighting following Aburizal’s decision to support the candidacy of the Gerindra Party’s Prabowo Subianto, who lost the July 9 presidential election to Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo.

Leading the charge was Agung, who is deemed to be a strong contender in the race for the party’s chairmanship.

Aburizal has fired Agung for calling for an early congress.

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie