Jakarta – A court has thrown out a challenge to tycoon Aburizal Bakrie's leadership of the Golkar Party, dealing a blow to the reformist faction led by Agung Laksono.
Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a former justice minister and the chief counsel for Aburizal's camp, revealed the ruling by the Central Jakarta District Court through his Twitter account on Monday.
"The judges at the Central Jakarta District State Court today accepted the exception filed by Aburizal Bakrie, Idrus Marham and others," Yusril wrote.
"Lawyers [for Aburizal] filed a competence exception arguing that the Central Jakarta District Court had no authority to handle the lawsuit filed by Agung Laksono and others," he added.
"All the arguments presented by [Aburizal's] camp were accepted by the court. Based on Articles 32 and 33 of the Law on Political Parties, party disputes should be handled internally by a party tribunal."
Golkar, the oldest party in Indonesia, was plunged into the worst crisis in its history last year following its weaker-than-expected showing in the legislative election in April and its failure, for the first time ever, to get one of its members on a ticket for the presidential election in July.
Critics of Aburizal blamed him for the party's decline, and staged their own congress in Jakarta in December to appoint Agung chairman, in response to a congress held just days earlier in Bali at which Aburizal was re-elected by acclamation.
Golkar stalwarts from both sides have tried to address the rift, including through the party tribunal, whose chief declared that the Jakarta congress was illegitimate – thus prompting Agung to take his case to court.
The court, however, ruled that the statement from the party tribunal chief, Muladi, was not an official ruling from the tribunal, and hence the dispute should be heard before the tribunal before it could go to court, Yusril said.
"Agung Laksono's legal team has been given 14 days to respond to the court's ruling," he added. "Now my colleagues and I can focus on the case [we filed with] the West Jakarta District Court."
That filing sees Aburizal suing Agung's camp over the legitimacy of the Jakarta congress and its decision to name Agung the party chairman.