 As the General Session approached, Suharto began making signs that he wanted Sudharmono as his Vice President.According to Kivlan Zen, a close associate of Prabowo, this ran contrary to Moerdani, who wanted to become Vice President himself.As such, this seemed to have been the reason for Moerdani's discharge from the position of ABRI Commander in February 1988, although according to Robert Elson, this was done more because Suharto did not want Moerdani to be in control of the Armed Forces when Sudharmono was nominated.