Golkar's treasurer faces bribery charge

TANGERANG (JP): Two cadres of Golkar Party mayoralty chapter here filed a report on Saturday with the Tangerang Police for an alleged bribe offered by the chapter's treasurer.

In their police report, cadres Sigit and Budi from the Jatiuwung district said treasurer Abas Sunarya bribed them a day earlier after the two questioned the sudden escalation of votes for the party from 27,377 to 37,354 in the district.

After the question, the two were invited by Abas to have dinner at Bandar Wijaya Cafe restaurant. He allegedly handed over Rp 1 million to Sigit and an envelope containing Rp 100,000 to Budi and asked them not to raise anymore questions about the voting figures of the party.

With money still in hand, Sigit, who's also an executive of Golkar Party district chapter at Jatiuwung, and Budi, reported the case and handed over the cash as evidence to the police on the next following day.

The two said they decided to report the alleged bribery to police as they did not want the party to have anyone who attempted to bribe people and legalize irregularities in vote counting.

When asked about the allegation, Abas strongly denied it and instead planned to report the two to police for alleged defamation.

Sudarko, a member of the General Elections Supervisory Committee said the committee was still investigating the case.

The committee, he said, would order the Tangerang General Elections Committee to recount the ballot papers in case there has been irregularities in the counting at Jatiuwung. (41/asa)