Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – An internal council within the United Development Party (PPP) has decided to maintain the leadership of party chairman Suryadharma Ali, following attempts to unseat him after he was named a graft suspect.

Council head Chozin Chumaidy said Suryadharma's ousting was unconstitutional. "The members of the PPP's central executive board are the same ones who were established at the seventh national congress in Bandung, West Java, in 2011," he said in a press statement, referring to the current committee led by Suryadharma. Therefore, Chozin added, there would be no leadership change.

Earlier this month, Suryadharma was unseated at an executive meeting, in which PPP secretary-general Romahurmuziy said Suryadharma was no longer fit to lead the party after being declared a suspect in a graft case relating to the mismanagement of funds in the country's haj program. Suryadharma was advised to focus on his legal case and hand the party's chairmanship to his deputy, Emron Pangkapi.

Within days of his dismissal, Suryadharma hit back by dismissing all the PPP officials that had stood against him. They were Romahurmuziy and Emron, together with two other party deputies, Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin and Suharso Monoarfa.

Suryadharma reasoned that what his secretary-general and deputies had done to him was akin to ministers impeaching a president.

With the council's ruling, Romahurmuziy will be reinstated as the party's secretary-general along with the other deputies that Suryadharma had dismissed.

Chozin said the ruling would remain in effect until the PPP held its next national congress. Ahead of the congress, the two opposing camps have been told to settle their differences.

The council had also asked both camps to refrain from any party-related activities other than those approved by the central executive board, he added.

The ruling was made following last week's legal move by Romahurmuziy, who filed a report with the Jakarta Police against Suryadharma and party member Sofyan Usman for trying to seize control of the party's headquarters.

Romahurmuziy said that as a result of Suryadharma's decision to seal the PPP's headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta, party members were unable to gain access to the building.

PPP deputy secretary-general Hasan Husaeri Lubis said on Thursday that Emron's camp would abide the decision. "The ruling is binding as stipulated by the Political Parties Law," he told The Jakarta Post.

Hasan, who spoke on Emron's behalf, said that although he and his supporters were disappointed with the council's ruling, they would accept it. He added, however, that it was a shame that the council had issued the ruling as Suryadharma's dismissal had been an appropriate step and in accordance with the PPP's ethics code.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/26/council-rules-suryadharma-must-remain-ppp-chief.html