CONVENTION CANDIDATES WANT TO END TOTAL OIL CONTRACT

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 22 (Antara) - Contestants at the ruling Democratic Party presidential Candidate Convention have said they would end the contract of France-based Total E&P Indonesie, operator of East Kalimantan's Mahakam oil block, when it expires in 2017.          At least three of the 11 contestants at the convention, held in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, said on Saturday that if they are elected president they wanted to hand over the operating rights of the Mahakam Oil Block to state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina.          Total E&P Indonesie is now focusing on oil fields it is exploiting in an effort to increase its oil and gas production.  It is working to produce 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas in 2014, or equal to its gas production from one year earlier.          Total's oil production is currently some 66,053 barrels per day, or an increase by five percent of its average daily production of 62,910 barrels per day.          Hayono Isaman, one of the 11 participants in the Democratic Party (PD) presidential candidate convention, said that Pertamina was capable of taking over operation from Total in the Mahakam Oil Block in East Kalimantan.          "If am elected president, I will surely entrust it to Pertamina to operate the Mahakam Oil Block," asserted Hayono during the debates held by PD Convention committee in Balipapan on Saturday.

OBSERVERS SAY PARTY CONVENTION AIMS TO BUILD IMAGE

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 12 (Antara) - Amid public doubts over dedicated political party cadres, the ruling Democratic Party (PD) is planning to launch a national convention to net would-be presidential candidates.         This is one of the ways a political party can take to find a qualified presidential candidate from external figures.         However, of the 12 political parties eligible to contest in the legislative elections on April 9 next year, only the ruling Democratic Party (PD) has decided to launch a semi-convention.         The PD so far has yet to decide its presidential candidate in the face of the presidential election scheduled to take place on July 9, 2014.         Political parties winning 20 percent of the 560 parliamentary seats at stake or 25 percent of the valid votes in the next legislative elections are entitled to nominate their presidential hopefuls for the presidential elections.         Therefore, PD considers that holding a national convention is a factual need to seek for a presidential candidate for the presidential race.         "All presidential candidates of political parties are doubted (by the public). None of them are really favored. But I do not believe that this big nation has no dedicated leaders," Ahmad Mubarok, a member of PD's Board of Patrons, said last week.          He said that the Democratic Party had no internal or external figures who were favored because all of them were questioned (by the public). The longer a figure puts him or herself on ads the more questions the public would raise.