Democratic Party (Indonesia)

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Democratic Party
Partai Demokrat
Presidential Candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
General Secretary Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono
Founded September 9, 2001; 22 years ago (2001-09-09)
Split from Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
Headquarters Jakarta
Ideology Pancasila
Ballot number 7
Seats in DPR
61 / 560
Website
www.demokrat.or.id
Politics of Indonesia
Political parties
Elections

The Democratic Party (Indonesian: Partai Demokrat) is a political party in Indonesia. It was founded on 9 September 2001. Its ideology is based on the Indonesian concept of Pancasila, and identifies as centrist.[1] The Democratic Party is an observer of the Liberal International.

Origins

The 2001 Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly which resulted in Megawati Sukarnoputri's election as President of Indonesia caused a vacancy in the position of Vice President. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was one candidate who competed for the Vice Presidency, losing out to Hamzah Haz.

Yudhoyono's supporters saw Yudhoyono's participation in the Vice Presidential election as a sign of his popularity and recognized Yudhoyono's potential as a possible leader for Indonesia. One of these supporters, Vence Rumangkang approached Yudhoyono with the idea of forming a political party to help shore up support for the 2004 Presidential Elections. Yudhoyono approved of the idea and after going the basic concepts left Rumangkang in charge of forming the party.

From 12–19 August 2001, Rumangkang began holding a series meetings to discuss the formation of the Party while holding consultations with Yudhoyono who was now serving as the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security. Yudhoyono personally led the meeting on 19 August and on 20 August 2001, the basic outline of the party was finalized.

On 9 September 2001 (Yudhoyono's 52nd birthday), the formation of Democratic Party was officially declared and on 10 September 2001, it was registered the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. The party also elected Subur Budhisantoso as Party Chairman.

History

2004 legislative election

The party won 7.5% share of votes and won 57 out of 560 seats of People's Representative Council in the 2004 legislative election and finished in fifth place overall.

2004 presidential election

The party nominated Yudhoyono as its presidential candidate with Jusuf Kalla as the vice-presidential candidate. In this, they were also supported by the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI). Yudhoyono and Kalla won the first round of elections in July 2004 with 33.6% of the votes and would go on to win 60.1% in the run-offs and thereby securing Yudhoyono's election as President.

2005 party congress

In May 2005, the party held its first Party Congress, during which Hadi Utomo was elected as chairman. Nevertheless, the highest authority in the Party remained with Yudhoyono who was elected was Chairman of the Advisory Board (Ketua Dewan Pembina).

2009 legislative election

The party came first in the 2009 legislative election with 20.9 percent of the votes. It will also be the largest party in the People's Representative Council, with 148 seats, just over one quarter of the total.[2][3]

2009 presidential election

Incumbent Yudhoyono wins the election, with former Governor of Bank Indonesia, Boediono, as vice-presidential candidate, with a total tally of 60.8% in first round of runoff system election, beating former president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, and incumbent vice president, Jusuf Kalla

2013 extraordinary congress

After the resignation of Anas Urbaningrum, the party held an extraordinary congress on 30 March 2013 in Bali to fill the chairmanship. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ran unopposed and was unanimously elected after no other party members decided to run.

Regional strength

In the legislative election held on 9 April 2009, support for the Democratic Party was higher than the party's national average in the following provinces:

But in 2012, the party's popularity is rapidly decreasing due to dissent generated by major corruption cases involving members of the party.

Chairpersons

Graft case

Muhammad Nazaruddin has been dismissed by the Democratic Party's ethics council from his position as party treasurer due to of his alleged involvement in a graft case, but he is still a member of the party and a legislator in House of Reprensentatives. Constitutional Court chief, Mahfud MD has said M. Nazaruddin had given S$120,000 ($96,900) to Constitutional Court secretary general Janedri M Gaffar for an unclear reason in 2010. The money was then returned to M. Nazaruddin.[4] At 24 May 2011 Mahfud MD has reported M. Nazaruddin to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for allegedly trying to give a court official gratuities.[5]

On 20 April 2012, M. Nazaruddin was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to four years and ten months in prison and fined approximately US$22,000. He was found guilty of accepting over 4.68 billion rupiah in return for helping rig the tenders for an athletes’ village built for the Southeast Asian Games in South Sumatra in November 2011.[6]

Nazaruddin was arrested by Interpol in Cartagena, Colombia in August 2011, having fled Indonesia after being named a suspect in the case.[7]

The Nazaruddin scandal was followed by the naming of a number of high-ranking party officials and MPs as suspects in numerous graft cases, the most prominent one included Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng which led to his resignation in December 2012 [8] Mallarangeng was named suspect in the same athlete training camp case which had involved Nazaruddin.[citation needed]

Election results

Legislative election results

Election Total seats won Total votes Share of votes Outcome of election Election leader
2004
55 / 550
8,455,225 7.45% Increase55 seats Subur Budhisantoso
2009
150 / 560
21,703,137 20.85% Increase95 seats, Governing coalition (Demokrat-Golkar-PKS-PAN-PPP-PKB) Hadi Utomo
2014
61 / 560
12,728,913 10.19% Decrease87 seats, Opposition (Gerindra-Golkar-Demokrat-PPP-PKS-PAN) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Presidential election results

Election Candidate Running mate 1st round
(Total votes)
Share of votes Outcome 2nd round
(Total votes)
Share of votes Outcome
2004 Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Jusuf Kalla 39,838,184 33.57% Runoff 69,266,350 60.62% Elected Green tickY
2009 Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Boediono 73,874,562 60.80% Elected Green tickY

References

  1. [1]
  2. Indonesian General Election Commission website Official Election Results
  3. Indonesian General Election Commission website KPU Ubah Perolehan Kursi Parpol di DPR (KPU Changes Allocations of Parties' seats in the DPR (15 May 2009)) Access date 2009-05-24 (indonesian)
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External links