PEKAN BARU (RIAU) - INDONESIA'S oldest political party has elected billionaire-turned-bureaucrat Aburizal Bakrie as its new chairman, following a tense party congress marred by scuffles and shouting matches.

The closed-door meeting dragged on into dawn on Thursday, and ended with Golkar delegates from across the country voting to put him at the helm for the next five years. He won a majority.

Mr Bakrie replaces Mr Jusuf Kalla, who is also the country's outgoing vice-president. His election is expected to help Golkar rejuvenate itself and woo younger members. That would make it stronger in the next parliamentary and presidential elections, scheduled for 2014.

In the April parliamentary polls, Golkar won 14.6 per cent of the votes, down from 21 per cent in 2004. Former chairman Kalla also lost his bid to be Indonesia's next president in the July election, getting only a paltry 12 per cent of the votes.

Mr Bakrie, 64, hopes to turn that performance around. He has pledged to donate 1 trillion rupiah (S$147 million) to the party, and has plans to recruit young and popular figures throughout the villages.

His aim is to expand the base of the political vehicle that enabled former Indonesian president Suharto to rule the country for more than three decades.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.