PDI-P councillor's diploma disappears

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