Senior councillor reveals bribery<\/p>\n
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
There is stronger indication about the irregularities in the
\nrecent gubernatorial election as a senior councillor of the
\nNational Mandate Party (PAN) faction admitted on Monday that a
\ngubernatorial candidate had given 10 cheques worth Rp 450 million
\neach to 10 councillors from the party.<\/p>\n
The senior councillor, who asked not to be named, revealed
\nthat three PAN councillors met with candidate, also businessman
\nEndang Darmawan, at the Aryaduta Hotel one night before the Sept.
\n11 election day. Endang then asked one of the councillors to give
\na total of 10 checks issued by Bank International Indonesia, to
\nthe councillors who did not attend the meeting.<\/p>\n
"Since the 10 of us refused the checks, we decided to ask the
\nparty's central board to keep the checks. We believe that they
\nwere blank checks and they could not be cashed since we did not
\nelect him," the member said.<\/p>\n
The source said earlier that some PAN councillors had
\ncomplained that as the second biggest faction, they got nothing
\nfrom the election, while those smaller factions got a lot of
\nmoney from the event.<\/p>\n
The source said they contacted the party's deputy chairman
\nAbdillah, who was nominated by the party as deputy governor, to
\ngive "something" to PAN councillors but Abdillah refused the
\ndemand.<\/p>\n
"I regretted that my friends 'played' with other people
\nalthough (the party chairman) had personally written letters to
\nthe 13 of us to choose Abdillah," the member said with tears in
\nthe eyes.<\/p>\n
Abdillah was paired by gubernatorial candidate Tarmidi
\nSuhardjo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
\nPerjuangan) who secured 13 votes in the election. But it was
\nbelieved that not all of the 13 PAN members voted for Abdillah.
\nTwo of the votes were believed to come from Tarmidi and Ugiek
\nSoegihardjo, who is also from PDI Perjuangan.<\/p>\n
Endang, who was paired with Dadang Hamdani from PDI Perjuangan
\nas deputy governor, got three votes.<\/p>\n
Endang, who reportedly gave blank checks when he nominated
\nhimself as the Yogyakarta mayor two years ago, could not be
\nreached for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n
PAN councillor Syamsuardi Botan, who was believed to meet with
\nEndang prior to the gubernatorial election, denied the
\naccusation.<\/p>\n
"It's a 'fishy' statement. I was at the Ibis Hotel in Menteng
\nalong with PAN councillors," said Syamsuardi, who is a lawyer.<\/p>\n
PAN's central board's deputy chairman and the city council's
\ndeputy M. Suwardi also denied that the central board kept the
\nchecks. "I don't know anything about the checks," he said.<\/p>\n
The "check issue" made the election become more controversial
\nas another gubernatorial candidate earlier admitted to have paid
\nRp 200 million to councillors as a down payment of a total of Rp
\n2 billion if the councillors elected him as governor.<\/p>\n
Travel agent Mahfudz, who also secured three votes in the
\nelection, however, later retracted his statement.<\/p>\n
At least three councillors of PDI Perjuangan admitted to
\nhaving marked their paper ballots in support of the incumbent
\nSutiyoso.<\/p>\n
Several NGOs plan to file a citizens lawsuit to demand the
\ncourt to annul the election result due to the alleged
\nirregularities.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/senior-councillor-reveals-bribery-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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