Disgraced Election Official Resigns From KPU
Jakarta. Wahyu Setiawan, a commissioner of the General Election Commission, or KPU, announced his resignation early on Friday after he was named suspect for taking bribe from a politician.
Wahyu, 46, was arrested at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport on Wednesday for allegedly taking money from Harun Masiku, a politician from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
As he was taken to the detention facility after a questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) building in Jakarta just after midnight on Friday, Wahyu handed a letter to journalists.
“Having been named a suspect, I will soon resign from the KPU,” the letter reads.
“This incident is purely my personal matter and I will follow the legal proceedings at the KPK,” he wrote.
The KPK said Wahyu has asked Rp 900 million ($65,000) in return for helping Harun fill a vacant seat in the House of Representatives. The House vacancy occurred due to the death of elected member Nazarudin Kiemas, also a PDI-P politician.
Harun and a businessman identified as Saeful have channeled at least Rp 600 million through fellow PDI-P member Agustiani Tio Fridelina, a former member of the Election Supervisory Agency, or Bawaslu.
Wahyu already took Rp 200 million in December and contacted Agustiani on Wednesday that he would take the remaining Rp 400 million.
He was arrested before the second payment was made. The KPK also arrested Agustiani at her home in Depok, West Java, and seized the money in Singapore dollar denomination from her. Harun, Saeful and Agustiani were named suspects as well.
The KPU has earlier picked PDI-P politician Riezky Aprilia over Harun to fill the House seat vacated by Nazarudin.
The PDI-P has won a Supreme Court ruling stating that the replacement of a House member should be decided by the party in question, but a recent KPU meeting refused to correct their decision on the grounds that Riezky had won more votes than Harun.
That’s when Agustiani approached Wahyu again to remind him about his promise to help Harun and she got a reply in a text message: “Copy that. Let’s do it.”
The KPK urges Harun, who remains at large, to give himself up to the anti-graft agency.
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