Democratic Party (Indonesia)

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.

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.

2009 presidential election

Incumbent Yudhoyono won 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.

2014 legislative election

For the 2014 legislative election, the party set a target of 15% of the national vote, less than its 2009 share. One reason the party expected its vote to fall was that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would not able to run for president, having served the two terms allowed for in the Constitution. However, the party won only 10.19%, losing over half of its seats in the legislature.

Chairpersons

Graft case

Muhammad Nazaruddin was dismissed by the Democratic Party's ethics council from his position as party treasurer due to 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. 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.

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.

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

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 Mallarangeng was named suspect in the same athlete training camp case which had involved Nazaruddin.