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Dozens of executives and provincial leaders of the Hanura Party are scheduled to attend the party’s national executive meeting in Jakarta, Tuesday afternoon, to choose the party’s coalition partners ahead of the July 9 presidential election, a party executive has said.

“Today’s national meeting will have only one agenda: to make a formal decision regarding Hanura’s coalition partners, nothing more,” party executive Sarifuddin Sudding told The Jakarta Post.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Joko Widodo, or popularly known as Jokowi, plans to soon take a temporary leave from the post of Jakarta Governor to run as the presidential candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).

"I am still preparing the documents to take a temporary leave," Jokowi stated.

The Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) said that stalled vote counting in some provinces was mostly due to alleged vote-rigging, not administrative errors.

Bawaslu chairman Muhammad said over the weekend that the agency had issued a recommendation to the National Police to launch an investigation into individuals allegedly responsible for election-related crimes that had caused vote-counting delays.

A cofounder of the Golkar Party and members of sub-organizations have advised party chairman Aburizal Bakrie to abandon his presidential ambitions amid rumors that he might settle for the vice presidential ticket, allowing Prabowo Subianto to snatch the top job.

The murmurs gained momentum after Aburizal held a meeting with the Gerindra Party’s presidential nominee at the former’s house, which resulted in a commitment of political cooperation between Golkar and Gerindra ahead the July 9 presidential election.

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Friday that he hoped President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s successor would continue to bolster the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) weapon systems in accordance with the Minimum Essential Force (MEF) framework.

“The development of our defense under President Yudhoyono’s leadership has been very strong. I think this deserves people’s appreciation and the program should be continued by the next government,” Purnomo told The Jakarta Post.

An alliance between the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) will be announced soon, a senior PDI-P politician said on Thursday.

“We are just waiting to make it official,” PDI-P deputy secretary-general Hasto Kristianto told The Jakarta Post, adding that there would be a meeting between PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri and PKB leader Muhaimin Iskandar.

Hasto claimed that both parties had a similar ideology and had long been close.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says corruption eradication should be a priority of the new government, which will take shape after this year’s presidential election.

“We are aware there is a lot of work still to be done, like eradicating corruption that continues to occur in this country,” Yudhoyono said in his remarks during the opening of the 2014 National Development Planning Conference (Musrenbangnas) in Jakarta on Wednesday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic party would benefit over the longer term from rebuilding its reputation in opposition, rather than pushing to become part of an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) coalition, a political analyst said on Tuesday.

“It’s better for the Democrats to be in opposition along with the Prosperous Justice Party [PKS],” AS Hakim said. “The party has been in power for 10 years and, if they take being in opposition seriously over the next five years, they could repair their image.”

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated on Wednesday that he hoped whoever would eventually continue his job as the next leader of the country could perform better.

“So let’s us pave the way for the next president by making the path smoother,” he said on the opening of the 2014 National Development Planning Conference in Jakarta as quoted by Antara on Wednesday.

He said the country’s development plan for the next five to 10 years had been deliberated and thus it would be the next president’s job to implement it.