[1] The congress was opened on 15 April 1986 at the Sasono Langen Budoyo building, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, Jakarta.

The congress was attended by the president and vice president of Indonesia, Soeharto and Umar Wirahadikusumah, the ministers of the Fourth Development Cabinet, chairpersons of state organizations, ambassadors, the general chairmen of Golkar and the United Development Party, and around 1,250 participants of the congress.

[3] A stronger urge to hold a congress was delivered by Hardijanto Sumodisastro as the chairman of the Central Executive Council of PDI.

Since the end of October, the East Java Branch of PDI had urged the CEC to hold a congress.

[14] To face this, on 6 December 1985, the CEC consulted with the Minister of Home Affairs, Soepardjo Rustam, about the congress.

The young generation of the political party argued that the process of regeneration has to be held with the basis that the maximum age for the chairman position is 55 years old.

They expressed their disappointment by confronting Sabam Sirait, the General Secretary of PDI, and Achmad Sukarmadidjaja, when both entered the congress building, Sasano Langgen Budaya.

[2] The opening ceremony began with the Indonesian national anthem, a moment of silence, and the PDI March.

After that, Wignyo Sumarsono gave the PDI placard to Soeharto and delivered a speech to the congress.

[27] During the congress, there were two names that had the strongest chance to gain the chairman office, Suryadi and I Gusti Ngurah Gde Jaksa.

The stalemate became worse with the "disappearance" of Yusuf Merukh as the head of the congress, Sabam Sirait as the general secretary, and Sumario as the chairman of the Central Java Branch of PDI at 16.00.

[29] Eventually, on 18.00, Eddy Sukirman, as the chairman of the Party Consultative Assembly, declared that the closing was canceled.

Many guests still arrived at 19.00, such as Soepardjo Rustam, Sudharmono as the Chairman of Golkar, Moerdiono as the Minister of State Secretariat, and several delegations of foreign countries.

On the closing of the congress, the party decided to hand over the formation of the CEC to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The formation by the Ministry of Home Affairs marked a de jure intervention of PDI by the government.

"[32] Ipik Asmasubrata, the chairman of the Jakarta branch of PDI, cursed the congress by saying "The mess occurred due to the incompetent[a] CEC of the party.

Ipik and other delegations from East Java, Bali, and Lampung, blame Sabam and Merukh for the failure of the congress.

[36] Other figures, such as Amirmachmud, the chairman of the People's Representative Council, claimed that the failure of the congress was due to "a third party intervention by extremists who want to weaken PDI".

[39] The next wave, the "horizontal" consultation, would run from 23 until 29 April, with the outgoing CEC of the party meeting the ministry.

Another consideration was to eliminate Sabam and Yusuf from the formation, who some considered to be disrespectful of the party by "disappearing during the crucial minutes".

For example, Benuhardjo, the chosen vice treasurer, was called by the ministry staff to attend the meeting in Jakarta, while he himself was in Jogjakarta.