JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The associate chairman of Golkar Party, Yuddy Chrisnandy, said he was ready to take over from Jusuf Kalla to lead the party from 2009 to 2014.  "It was only Yuddy that had directly expressed his readiness to become the general chairman and we have to appreciate it as it is the right of all members," current general chairman Jusuf Kalla said after a plenary executive board meeting here on Wednesday.
   
"However every candidate must meet several requirements including having been a party functionary for at least five years. We must appreciate Yuddy because he is the only one that has officially nominated himself to be the party’s next general chairman through the current board meeting," he said.
   
Regarding a fear over possible money politics that might happen in the election process Kalla said he would produce regulations and rules to prevent that. "Certainly Golkar does not want to see money politics to happen and I expect it will not happen in the process of the election. We will produce rules to avoid it," he said.
   
After the meeting Yuddy said if he was elected as party general chairman he planned to conduct changes in the Golkar board and would seek support from young functionaires to jointly return the past glory of the party as a strong and responsive party that fights for the people. He said the party’s defeat in the last legislative and presidential elections was the cause of his intention to seek the party’s leadership.
   
"Golkar Party lost because it was not united and so if it wants to take back its glory Golkar must be solid in the future," he said.

"I will reform the party and guarantee that 70 percent of the party’s central executive board members will be younger cadres aged below 50," he added.
   
He said he was optimistic he would be able to become the party’s general chairman to replace Jusuf Kalla who would end his term this year.  "I have network in the central executive board, ideas and concepts. Only one that I do not have, which is money," he said.
   
In the legislative elections in April Golkar finished second after the Democrats’ Party and in the presidential race on July 8 Golkar’s general chairman Jusuf Kalla was beaten by the candidate of the Democrats’ Party namely incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

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