Democratic Party (Indonesia)

The Democratic Party (Indonesian: Partai Demokrat) is a centre to centre-right 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.[2]

Democratic Party Partai Demokrat
General Chairman	Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono
Secretary-General	Hinca Panjaitan
Founded	9 September 2001
Headquarters	Jakarta
Youth wing	Generasi Muda Demokrat (Democratic Young Generation)
Women's wing	Srikandi Demokrat (Democratic Srikandi)
Ideology	Pancasila[1] Centrism[2]
Political position	Centre to Centre-right
Anthem	"Mars Partai Demokrat" ("Democratic Party March")
Ballot number	14
DPR seats	54 / 575
Provincial DPRD seats	224 / 2,207
Website
www.demokrat.or.id
Politics of Indonesia Political parties Elections

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 through 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 the Democratic Party was officially declared and on 10 September 2001, it was registered at the Ministry of Law 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 in the 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, 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 (Dewan Pembina).

2009 legislative election

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

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.[1] However, the party won only 10.19%, losing over half of its seats in the legislature.

Chairpersons

• Subur Budhisantoso (2001 – 2005)
• Hadi Utomo (2005 – 23 May 2010)
• Anas Urbaningrum (23 May 2010 – 23 February 2013)
• Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (30 March 2013 - 15 March 2020)
• Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (15 March 2020 - Present)

Corruption cases

Muhammad Nazaruddin was dismissed by the Democratic Party's ethics council from his position as party treasurer in May 2011 due to his involvement in a corruption case, but he remained a legislator in the House of Representatives. Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD said Nazaruddin had given S$120,000 ($96,900) to Constitutional Court secretary general Janedri M. Gaffar in 2010. The money was later returned to Nazaruddin.[4] On 24 May 2011, Mahfud reported Nazaruddin to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for allegedly trying to bribe a court official.[5]

On 20 April 2012, Nazaruddin was convicted of corruption and sentenced to four years and 10 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 legislators as suspects in numerous graft cases. Most prominent among them was Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, who resigned in December 2012 [8] Mallarangeng was named suspect in the same athlete training camp case which had involved Nazaruddin. Business tycoon Siti Hartati Murdaya, who had served on the party's Advisory Board, resigned in August 2012 after becoming embroiled in a corruption case for which she was later jailed.[9]

Election results

Legislative election results

Election	Ballot number	Total seats won	Total votes	Share of votes	Outcome of election	Party leader
2004	9	55 / 550	8,455,225	7.45%[10]	55 seats, Governing coalition	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Founding board chair) Subur Budhisantoso (General chair)
2009	31	150 / 560	21,703,137	20.85%[10]	95 seats, Governing coalition	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Founding board chair) Hadi Utomo (General chair)
2014	7	61 / 560	12,728,913	10.19%[11]	89 seats, Opposition	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
2019	14	54 / 575	10,876,507	7.77%[12]	7 seats, Opposition	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Presidential election results

Election	Ballot number	Candidate	Running mate	1st round (Total votes)	Share of votes	Outcome	2nd round (Total votes)	Share of votes	Outcome
2004	4	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	Jusuf Kalla	39,838,184	33.57%	Runoff	69,266,350	60.62%	Elected
2009	2	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	Boediono	73,874,562	60.80%	Elected
2014	1	Prabowo Subianto[13]	Hatta Rajasa	62,576,444	46.85%	Lost N
2019	02	Prabowo Subianto	Sandiaga Uno	68,650,239	44.50%	Lost N

Note: Bold text indicates the party member

References

1. Nainggolan, Bestian; Wahyu, Yohan (2016). Partai Politik Indonesia 1999-2019 (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Kompas Media Nusantara. p. 151. ISBN 978-602-412-005-4.
2. Bulkin, Nadia (24 October 2013). "Indonesia's Political Parties". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
3. "KPU Ubah Perolehan Kursi Parpol di DPR (KPU Changes Allocations of Parties' seats in the DPR)". Indonesian General Election Commission (in Indonesian). 14 May 2009. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014.
4. "Ethics council dismisses Nazaruddin as treasurer". The Jakarta Post. 23 May 2011. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012.
5. "Mahfud officially reports Nazaruddin to KPK". The Jakarta Post. 25 May 2011.
6. Chatterjee, Neil (20 April 2012). "Former ruling party treasurer guilty of graft in Indonesia". Reuters.
7. ICAC (21 April 2012). "April 21, 2012 – 0832: Indonesia KPK: Muhammad Nazaruddin convicted of bribery". ICAC. Archived from the original on 1 July 2012.
8. "Andi Mallarangeng: The road to resignation". The Jakarta Post. 8 December 2012.
9. Rostiyani, Yeyen (13 September 2012). "Hartati Murdaya detained by KPK in graft case". Republika. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
10. "Bab V - Hasil Pemilu - KPU" (PDF) (in Indonesian). Komisi Pemilihan Umum Republik Indonesia. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
11. "KPU sahkan hasil pemilu, PDIP nomor satu" (in Indonesian). BBC. 10 May 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
12. Zunita Putri (21 May 2019). "KPU Tetapkan Hasil Pileg 2019: PDIP Juara, Disusul Gerindra-Golkar". Detik.com (in Indonesian). Retrieved 31 May 2019.
13. Fiansyah, Rahmat (30 June 2014). "Partai Demokrat Resmi Dukung Prabowo-Hatta". Kompas.com (in Indonesian). Retrieved 1 August 2018.