Indonesia's Democrats may sit out next Parliament

WITH only days left before Indonesia's political parties must put forward their candidates for president, all eyes are on the incumbent: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Notorious for dithering but eager to retain his party's cohesion after a thrashing in the polls last month, Mr Yudhoyono faces a daunting task before the nominating deadline of May 20 of stitching together an unwieldy coalition of smaller parties with a handful of seats.

With horse-trading reaching a fever pitch, that task is getting harder by the hour. Opposition parties including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), led by the wildly popular Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, have for weeks been sounding out smaller parties for crucial support to put forward names of candidates for the July 9 contest.