Vote-buying charges delay swearing in of new regent for Banyumas
Vote-buying charges delay swearing in of new regent for Banyumas
Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Purwokerto, Central Java
The Banyumas legislative council has delayed the swearing in of
Setiono as winner of the recent regent election after allegations
that he and his running mate Durori were involved in vote-buying.
Legislature chairman Tri Waluyo, who presided over the
council's plenary session on Monday, asked the regent election
committee to investigate the case.
"The plenary session is adjourned until Wednesday to hear the
result of the election committee's investigation into the case,"
he said.
Setiono and Durori, who were nominated by Golkar, won 28 of 45
votes in the regent election held by the regency legislative
council on March 19, while the favorites, Bambang and Musadad
nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) and the National Awakening Party factions, won only
17 votes.
The inauguration of the pair was delayed after the legislature
received a complaint from PDI Perjuangan's local chapter accusing
the two of vote-buying.
According to PDI Perjuangan, the favorites should have won at
least 25 votes in the election because the party has 17 seats in
the legislature while PKB has only eight seats.
In its official complaint to the legislature, the party
claimed that Achmad Sudirta and Supadi, two legislators of PDI
Perjuangan, had received Rp 200 million from Setiono in return
for their vote.
The complaint was based on the two legislators' revelation
that they had accepted the bribe at a party meeting held after
the regent election.
Supadi, a Golkar legislator, claimed that the night before the
election, PDI Perjuangan faction chairman Manap Hadi had offered
him a great amount of money to cast his vote for PDI Perjuangan's
candidate Aris, but he turned down it.
Meanwhile, Manap denied that he had offered money to a Golkar
legislator, saying he was ready to undergo police investigation
to prove that he was not involved in vote-buying.
According to the 1999 law on regional autonomy, another
election should be held to elect a new regent and a deputy regent
if the winning pair is proven guilty of vote-buying. But the
winning pair should be sworn in as the new regent and the deputy
regent if it cannot be proved that they offered bribes in the
election.
PDI Perjuangan, which won a simple majority in the 1999
general election, has been defeated in gubernatorial and regent
elections despite its dominance in provincial and regency
legislatures.