Ainur Rohmah, Semarang – The Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), publicly perceived as tolerant to polygamy, sacked one of its provincial legislators for not registering his second marriage with a colleague from a different party at the Central Java Legislative Council.

Wahid Ahmadi handed over his seat to Bambang Sutopo on Thursday after revealing his siri (unregistered) marriage with fellow councilor Haritsah. Bambang was sworn in at the council building in a plenary session in Semarang. Bambang will serve until the end of the council term in 2014.

The council's deputy speaker, Fikri Faqih, however, said that an interim replacement was decided on following a resignation letter sent by Wahid to the council two months ago. "The reason was not mentioned in detail," Fikri said after the plenary session.

Bambang Sutopo garnered the second most votes in the Central Java electoral district (Dapil) VIII, which covers Banyumas and Cilacap.

At the time of Wahid's marriage to Haritsah, he was already married to another woman while she was a widow. Wahid said that he did not register his second marriage to the Religious Affairs Office because the marriage was hastily arranged. Wahid made their love affair public in April last year.

As a consequence, PKS suspended Wahid from his structural position in the party as well as from his post in the legislative council. Wahid was a staff member in the party's community supervision division and a member of the council's budget agency and special committee.

An official statement issued by PKS' Central Java branch stated that a legislative council member could be replaced if they engaged in an unofficial marriage.

In Wahid's case, he was considered to have violated the law and the code of ethics because as a public official, he was required to officially register his second marriage.

Fikri, who is also chairman of PKS's Central Java branch, denied accusations that his party pushed Wahid to resign for the sake of the party's popularity. "Why would he want to resign if he was pressed to do so?" he said.

He added that the replacement could take place because all the requirements to remove Wahid had been fulfilled, including an approval letter from the Home Ministry.

Fikri said the case was closed and the party suggested that Wahid should make his second marriage official. "We have handed over the case to the party's organizational discipline upholder agency [BPOD]. We have no idea how the case is going to be followed up."

Separately, Wahid said that he was not surprised by the recall. He said he voluntarily resigned to maintain the party's good name. He also admitted that his unofficial marriage was one of the reasons why the interim replacement was made. He said that he accepted the party's decision.

"Now I will concentrate on earning a living to support my wives and kids," he said.