Rizky Amelia & Noviani Setuningsih – A former Democratic Party politician admitted that money was distributed to several party members during the party's national congress in 2010.
"There was money distributed [during the congress], but I don't know where the money came from," the former head of the Gorontalo chapter of the party, Ismiyati Saidi, said before she was grilled by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators on Friday.
Ismiyati claimed she received Rp 100 million ($8,250) from the campaign team of the Democrat's ousted chairman, Anas Urbaningrum.
Ismiyati, who also admitted to receiving a Blackberry, said she would not return the money or the gadget because they were given to her as an allowance for the congress, which was held in Bandung, West Java in May 2010. Ismiyati said the money was given to her by Umar Arsal, a member of Anas's campaign team.
She was summoned by the KPK along with Diana Maringka, former head of the Democratic Party's Southeast Minahasa chapter. Previously, the KPK also grilled the team leader, Ahmad Mubarok, as a witness in the graft-ridden Hambalang Sports Center construction.
Mubarok denied the team had distributed money and cellular phones to politicians attending the congress in favor of Anas's victory as the party's chairman.
He claimed the team only distributed a transportation allowance and that the distribution was approved by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the party's advisory board chief. "We only distributed the transport allowance and it is completely legal, it was acknowledged and consented to by the advisory board chief," he said.
The Democratic Party's deputy chairman, Max Sopacua, denied Mubarok's statement that Yudhoyono knew anything about the money distributed during the 2010 congress. Max said neither he nor Yudhoyono was informed about the distribution of transport money to the party's members.
The allegation emerged when Sutan Bhatoegana, a member of the Democrats' central leadership board, said money was distributed in Bandung to the delegates from the party's regional offices.
He added he had heard rumors about the bribes but stressed he was not among those who received any of the money. Sutan also claimed not to know which of the regional delegates received the money from Anas's campaign team.
He said all he knew was that the team had handed out cash and brand new cellphones to the delegates so that they could communicate with them without anyone from the teams of the rival candidates finding out.
With regards to the hosting of the congress itself, Sutan said that he was convinced that the event was not funded with money obtained through corruption or bribery.
Disgraced lawmaker and graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin accused Anas of buying votes in his bid to secure the Democratic Party chairmanship during the party's 2010 congress.
Nazaruddin, the former Democratic Party treasurer who was jailed in 2012 for accepting bribes, has said the Aston Hotel was where $5 million and Rp 35 billion ($2.9 million) was allegedly dropped off and distributed.
Sutan, who is also a legislator, said he had tried to warn Muhammad Nazaruddin, the party's treasurer at the time and a close confidant to Anas, against the cash-for-votes ploy, but Nazaruddin had insisted that the other candidates for the party's chairmanship were doing the same.