Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Indonesia's Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri has vowed to clean up her Indonesian Democratic Party-Perjuangan (PDI-P), amid allegations that corrupt MPs within its ranks sold their votes to rival parties in local polls across the country.

Angered by recent media reports detailing just how expensive the alleged vote-buying was, she took the unusual step of announcing the sacking of 28 PDI-P cadres on Saturday and warned that more heads would roll soon.

At a gathering of 3,900 legislators in Jakarta ahead of her party's 28th anniversary, she warned them against indulging in "money politics" or accepting bribes.

"Many are of the opinion that they are representing the public and not the party ... Upon listening to such reports, I have questioned some of them and wanted to slap their faces," she said. "They thought that they had gained their seats from the sky, not through the party."

Local legislators are not elected directly but are chosen by their party according to a complex representational system for each district.

In districts such as Central and East Java, as well as Sumatra, Ms Megawati's PDI-P swept into power in the 1999 national election and holds the majority of seats in local parliaments there. Yet it has consistently been losing local mayoral and regency elections in these areas.

For a party whose widespread appeal is based on its image as an honest break with the corrupt parties of the Suharto era, the corruption allegations circulating over the last year have been damaging. However, this is PDI-P's first attempt to stamp out the practice of money politics.

Kalimantan legislator Subagio Anam said Ms Megawati's firm stance against corrupt or unruly legislators had been prompted by media reports in local papers as well as foreign publications, including The Straits Times.

The reports highlighted how her party had been losing district and regional elections because PDI-P legislators had allegedly been bought off or refused to vote for candidates endorsed by Ms Megawati.

In East Java, one local PDI-P parliamentarian admitted he accepted 10 million rupiahs (S$190,000) as part of a 200-million-rupiah package to vote for a candidate from President Abdurrahman Wahid's Nation Awakening Party (PKB), Tempo magazine reported in an expose on corruption within the PDI-P.

In another district, PDI-P and PKB members reportedly accepted 100 million rupiahs each to elect a Muslim candidate as the Mayor of Mojokoerto. The candidate won despite his party holding a handful of seats in the legislature, where the PDI-P and PKB are in the majority.

Other candidates – who also allegedly tried to bribe politicians but with smaller amounts of 70 million rupiah to 90 million rupiah – were so angered by the failure of their efforts that they filed complaints with local police in an attempt to regain their money.

Mr Pramono Anung Wibowo, the PDI-P deputy secretary-general, said many party legislators would be discharged for "selling" their votes in the election of regents and mayors in Medan and North Lampung in Sumatra, as well as Semarang, Klaten and Sragen, all in Central Java.