PDI-P councillor's diploma disappears

BOGOR: Bogor police deputy chief Comr. Budi Prasetyo said the original copy of the high school diploma of recently elected deputy mayor Mochamad Sahid was missing, and was thus impeding the investigation into the alleged use of a fake diploma in January's mayoral election.

"Sahid said the diploma was still at the city administration office, but the officials there said they had returned it to him after the case was made public. Regardless, we need it to check whether it is a fake," he said on Wednesday.

The administration official said he had returned the diploma of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) member and council chairman since 1999, two weeks ago after officials at the Jakarta education agency confirmed they never issued a high school diploma to Sahid.

Following the public reports on the alleged scam, the mayoral election committee urged an annulment of the Jan. 14 election, in which the pair of Diani Budiarto and the PDI-P's Sahid won. -- JP