TheDemocratic Party (Indonesian:Partai Demokrat,lit. 'Democrats' Party', sometimes abbreviated toPD) is acentre tocentre-rightnationalistpolitical party inIndonesia. Currently, it holds 44 seats in theHouse of Representatives (DPR). It is led byAgus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY), the son ofSusilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), who served as thePresident of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014.
Founded in September 2001 as the political vehicle of SBY, the party gained its initial parliamentary representation following the2004 legislative election, and SBY waselected as president.[2] It then became one of the major parties in SBY's governing coalition. In 2009, the party assumed power by winning the majority of votes in thelegislative election and became theruling and largest party in the DPR, with SBYre-elected for his second term. In 2014, the party performed poorly in thelegislative election, losing half of its seats in the DPR and subsequently served as the opposition to theJoko Widodo (Jokowi) administration. In the 2020 party congress, AHY was elected as the chairman. In 2024, it joined thegovernment coalition and AHY was appointed as theMinister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning.
The 2001 Special Session of thePeople's Consultative Assembly (MPR) resulted inMegawati Sukarnoputri's election asIndonesia's president, creating avice president vacancy.Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), a candidate, lost toHamzah Haz. Yudhoyono's popularity, evident in his vice presidential bid, prompted supporterVence Rumangkang to propose forming a party for the 2004 elections. Yudhoyono approved and delegated party formation to Rumangkang.
SBY himself did not directly participate in the creation of the party because of his duty asCoordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, although his wifeAni Yudhoyono claimed a leadership position. The party was formed by intellectual and academic circles.[2] SBY himself would be involved in the creation of the party's ideology, policy platforms, and even the party's symbols, hymn and march.
From 12 to 19 August 2001, Rumangkang, with Yudhoyono's input, finalized the party's outline. With 99 declarators forming the Democratic Party on 9 September 2001 (Yudhoyono's 52nd birthday), the Democratic Party was declared, registered at theMinistry of Law and Human Rights on 10 September 2001, andSubur Budhisantoso was elected party chairman.
The party won 7.5% share of votes and won 57 out of 560 seats in thePeople's Representative Council (DPR) in the2004 legislative election and finished in fifth place overall. The party nominated Yudhoyono as its presidential candidate, withJusuf Kalla as the vice presidential candidate. In this, they were also supported by theCrescent Star Party andIndonesian Justice and Unity Party. Yudhoyono and Kalla won the first round of elections in July 2004 with 33.6% of the votes and would go on to win 60.1% in the run-offs, thereby securing Yudhoyono's election as president. In May 2005, the party held its first party congress, during whichHadi Utomo was elected as chairman. Nevertheless, the highest authority in the Party remained with Yudhoyono, who was elected was chairman of the Advisory Board (Dewan Pembina).
The party came first in the2009 legislative election with 20.9 percent of the votes, making it the largest party in the DPR, with 148 seats, just over one quarter of the total.[17] Yudhoyono won the election, with former governor ofBank Indonesia,Boediono, as vice presidential candidate, with a total tally of 60.8% in first round ofrunoff system election, beating former president Megawati and incumbent vice-president Kalla. After the resignation ofAnas Urbaningrum, the party held an extraordinary congress on 30 March 2013 inBali to fill the chairmanship. Yudhoyono ran unopposed and was unanimously elected after no other party members decided to run.
For the2014 legislative election, the party set a target of 15% of the national vote, less than its 2009 share. One reason the party expected its vote to fall was that Yudhoyono would not able to run for president, having served the two terms allowed for in theconstitution.[3] However, the party won only 10.19%, losing over half of its seats in the legislature.
For the2019 legislative election, the party initially set a target of 15%, but later changed the target to 10% of the national vote.[18] The party managed to gain 7.77% of the vote, losing some seats in the legislature.[19] On 15 March 2020,Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY), who had previously commanded the Joint Task Command (Kogasma) during the 2019 general election, was elected as the new chairman, replacing his father.[20]
On 5 March 2021, an unauthorized extraordinary congress inDeli Serdang convened by some party members electedMoeldoko as the new chairman, contrary to the 2020 congress that elected AHY as the chairman until 2025.[21] Former chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opposed the congress, arguing it was unlawful, as neither the party's high council nor majority of its regional branches had requested it.[22][23] AHY claimed Moeldoko's election was illegal, asserting himself as the legitimate party leader.[24] On 31 March 2021, the government confirmed the extraordinary congress result as illegitimate, affirming AHY as the rightful chairman of the party.[25]
Entering the beginning of 2023, the Democratic Party through its decision chose to nominateAnies Baswedan to become a presidential candidate.[26][27] Apart from that, the Democrats also nominated their general chairman, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, to be Anies' running mate.[28] However shockingly, Anies selectedMuhaimin Iskandar from theNational Awakening Party (PKB) after the latter leftPrabowo Subianto'sAdvanced Indonesia Coalition.[29][30] As the result of Muhaimin's appointment as Anies' running mate, AHY and the Democratic Party withdrew their support and left their coalition.[31] After their exit, the Democratic Party was approached byPDI-P who is hoping for AHY to back Ganjar Pranowo asHasto Kristiyanto claimed intense communications are underway.[32] The Democrats also got approached by theAdvanced Indonesia Coalition as Prabowo held a meeting together with his father in Cikeas.[33] After many considerations, on 21 September 2023 inJakarta Convention Center, AHY and the Democratic Party declared to back Prabowo Subianto in his presidential campaign.[34][35] Ironically, both AHY and Moeldoko supported the same candidate for the2024 presidential election.[36]
The 2008 Law on Political Parties states that political parties are allowed to include specific characteristics that reflect their political aspirations, as long as they do not contradictPancasila and the1945 Constitution.[37] As per Articles 2 and 3 of itsconstitution and bylaws (AD/ART), the Democratic Party is founded on Pancasila and "nationalist-religious" is its slogan. It views attempts to clash nationalism and religion as incorrect and misleading.[38] Outsider views on the party's political orientation vary. Academics and domestic observers classified it as a nationalist party,[39] while their international counterparts described it as asecular-nationalist,[4]conservative,[40] ornational-liberal party.[41] Itspolitical leaning has been described ascentrist,[12][13][42]centre-right,[43] orcatch-all.[14][40]
Muhammad Nazaruddin was dismissed by the Democratic Party's ethics council from his position as party treasurer in May 2011 due to his involvement in a corruption case, but he remained a legislator in the House of Representatives.Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD said Nazaruddin had given S$120,000 ($96,900) to Constitutional Court secretary general Janedri M. Gaffar in 2010. The money was later returned to Nazaruddin.[44] On 24 May 2011, Mahfud reported Nazaruddin to theCorruption Eradication Commission for allegedly trying to bribe a court official.[45]
On 20 April 2012, Nazaruddin was convicted of corruption and sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison and fined approximately US$22,000. He was found guilty of accepting over 4.68 billionrupiah in return for helping rig the tenders for an athletes' village built for theSoutheast Asian Games inSouth Sumatra in November 2011.[46]
Nazaruddin was arrested byInterpol inCartagena,Colombia in August 2011, having fled Indonesia after being named a suspect in the case.[47]
The Nazaruddin scandal was followed by the naming of a number of high-ranking party officials and legislators as suspects in numerous graft cases. Most prominent among them was Youth and Sports MinisterAndi Mallarangeng, who resigned in December 2012.[48] Mallarangeng was named suspect in the same athlete training camp case which had involved Nazaruddin.[49] Business tycoonSiti Hartati Murdaya, who had served on the party's Advisory Board, resigned in August 2012 after becoming embroiled in a corruption case for which she was later jailed.[50]
In 2014, the emergence of the hashtag #ShameOnYouSBY and several other hashtags onTwitter attacking the PresidentSusilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Democratic Party occurred due to the walk out of most members of the Democratic Party faction during the plenary session for the ratification of the Regional Election Law which resulted in the election of regional heads such as governors, regents and mayor by theRegional Representative Council.[51] It was later revealed that there was a miscommunication between the President and his party fraction as the parliamentary leader of the Democratic Party,Nurhayati Ali Assegaf misread the President's message from "all out" to "walk out".[52]
| Election | Ballot number | Total seats won | Total votes | Share of votes | Seat change | Outcome of election | Party leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 9 | 55 / 550 | 8,455,225 | 7.45%[53] |  55 seats | Governing coalition | Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Founding board chair) Subur Budhisantoso (General chair) |
| 2009 | 31 | 150 / 560 | 21,703,137 | 20.85%[53] | 95 seats | Governing coalition | Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Founding board chair) Hadi Utomo (General chair) |
| 2014 | 7 | 61 / 560 | 12,728,913 | 10.19%[54] |  89 seats | Neutral | Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono |
| 2019 | 14 | 54 / 575 | 10,876,507 | 7.77%[55] | 7 seats | Opposition (2019–2024) | Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono |
| Governing coalition (2024) | |||||||
| 2024 | 14 | 44 / 580 | 11,283,053 | 7.43% | 10 seats | Governing coalition | Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono |
| Election | Ballot number | Candidate | Running mate | 1st round (Total votes) | Share of votes | Outcome | 2nd round (Total votes) | Share of votes | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 4 | Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono | Jusuf Kalla | 39,838,184 | 33.57% | Runoff | 69,266,350 | 60.62% | Elected |
| 2009 | 2 | Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono | Boediono | 73,874,562 | 60.80% | Elected | |||
| 2014 | 1 | Prabowo Subianto[56] | Hatta Rajasa | 62,576,444 | 46.85% | Lost | |||
| 2019 | 2 | Prabowo Subianto | Sandiaga Uno | 68,650,239 | 44.50% | Lost | |||
| 2024 | 2 | Prabowo Subianto | Gibran Rakabuming Raka | 96,214,691 | 58.59% | Elected | |||
Note: Bold text indicates the party member
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