JAKARTA, Indonesia – National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar said Monday (September 2nd) he is open to the idea of Islam-based political parties nominating former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD as a presidential candidate for 2014, local media reported.

"We have not yet arrived at building a coalition of Muslim-based parties, but I welcome the idea of nominating Mahfud. He is a potential candidate," Muhaimin said, as quoted by kompas.com.

Iskandar acknowledged strong grassroots pressure to support Mahfud as a candidate, though the party has not discussed it internally.

"It's time (to see) whether Islamist parties could form a coalition and then agree to nominate a figure," Siti Zuhro a senior researcher for the Centre for Political Studies at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, told reporters in Jakarta on Saturday.