Senior councillor reveals bribery
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
There is stronger indication about the irregularities in the recent gubernatorial election as a senior councillor of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction admitted on Monday that a gubernatorial candidate had given 10 cheques worth Rp 450 million each to 10 councillors from the party.
The senior councillor, who asked not to be named, revealed that three PAN councillors met with candidate, also businessman Endang Darmawan, at the Aryaduta Hotel one night before the Sept. 11 election day. Endang then asked one of the councillors to give a total of 10 checks issued by Bank International Indonesia, to the councillors who did not attend the meeting.
"Since the 10 of us refused the checks, we decided to ask the party's central board to keep the checks. We believe that they were blank checks and they could not be cashed since we did not elect him," the member said.
The source said earlier that some PAN councillors had complained that as the second biggest faction, they got nothing from the election, while those smaller factions got a lot of money from the event.
The source said they contacted the party's deputy chairman Abdillah, who was nominated by the party as deputy governor, to give "something" to PAN councillors but Abdillah refused the demand.
"I regretted that my friends 'played' with other people although (the party chairman) had personally written letters to the 13 of us to choose Abdillah," the member said with tears in the eyes.
Abdillah was paired by gubernatorial candidate Tarmidi Suhardjo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) who secured 13 votes in the election. But it was believed that not all of the 13 PAN members voted for Abdillah. Two of the votes were believed to come from Tarmidi and Ugiek Soegihardjo, who is also from PDI Perjuangan.
Endang, who was paired with Dadang Hamdani from PDI Perjuangan as deputy governor, got three votes.
Endang, who reportedly gave blank checks when he nominated himself as the Yogyakarta mayor two years ago, could not be reached for comment on Monday.
PAN councillor Syamsuardi Botan, who was believed to meet with Endang prior to the gubernatorial election, denied the accusation.
"It's a 'fishy' statement. I was at the Ibis Hotel in Menteng along with PAN councillors," said Syamsuardi, who is a lawyer.
PAN's central board's deputy chairman and the city council's deputy M. Suwardi also denied that the central board kept the checks. "I don't know anything about the checks," he said.
The "check issue" made the election become more controversial as another gubernatorial candidate earlier admitted to have paid Rp 200 million to councillors as a down payment of a total of Rp 2 billion if the councillors elected him as governor.
Travel agent Mahfudz, who also secured three votes in the election, however, later retracted his statement.
At least three councillors of PDI Perjuangan admitted to having marked their paper ballots in support of the incumbent Sutiyoso.
Several NGOs plan to file a citizens lawsuit to demand the court to annul the election result due to the alleged irregularities.