Senior councillor reveals bribery

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.