JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – Former Chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) Hatta Rajasa, through his Twitter account @hattarajasa, denied a rumor saying he will join to the Democratic Party. Hatta said that the rumor is merely a speculation.
The rumor itself comes to surface following Hatta’s defeat to Zulkifli Hasan, the Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), in the PAN’s chairmanship congress in March 2015.
PAN is now the fifth largest party in the House of Representatives (DPR) behind PDI-P, Golkar, Gerindra, and Democratic Party. PAN controls 48 out of 560 total seats at the DPR or 8.57 percent.
The Democratic Party, chaired by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), meanwhile, controls 61 seats (10.9 percent) at the DPR.
Hatta is a father-in-law of SBY’s youngest son Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono aka Ibas. Hatta was also member of SBY’s cabinet during the ten years of SBY’s presidency. Latest, he was Coordinating Minister for Economy before resigned to run as Prabowo Subianto’s running mate in the 2014 presidential race. (haryantosuharman@yosefardi.com)