02 Sep 2011

Democratic Party Investigates Vote-Buying in 2010 Party Congress

The Democratic Party in Indonesia has decided to question four members about suspicions of vote-buying in last year’s party congress, in which Anas Urbaningrum (pictured here) was elected chairmen.

The accusations came from Muhammad Nazaruddin, former party treasurer. According to him, Anas’ candidacy was favored by votes bought with money embezzled from several government projects and institutions, such as the state construction company PT Adhi Karya.

He further claimed that Anas’ campaign team distributed $10,000 to $40,000 to each member of the party’s district executive board, in order to pursuade them to vote for him. The accusations were corroborated by the testimony of drivers who had delivered the bribes. They also mentioned which party members had ordered the payments.

Nazaruddin is currently under investigation for bribery and fraud in contracting procedures for the construction of the athlete’s village in Palembang, South Sumatra.

For the full story on The Jakarta Post, please click here. The photo of Anas Urbaningrum was taken from the website skalanews.com.