The United Development Party (PPP) held the congress on April 8-10 which elected Romahurmuziy by acclamation as its chairman.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President M Jusuf Kalla attended the closing ceremony of PPP congress at Pondok Gede Hajj Dormitory, East Jakarta, Sunday.

Kalla was greeted by Religius Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin and PPP General Chairman Romahurmuziy.

The United Development Party (PPP) held the congress on April 8-10 which elected Romahurmuziy by acclamation as its chairman.

The Pondok Gede congress was attended by 1,062 party members.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) officially opened the congress, expressing his hope that PPP would be reunited again after a prolonged dispute between PPP led by Djan Faridz and rival PPP led by Romahurmuziy.

The leadership of the PPP has split into two rival camps respectively led by Djan Faridz and Romahurmuziy, better known as Romi.

Romi and his colleagues who have been supporting the current government, held a congress in Surabaya, East Java, in October 2014, which Romi as the new PPP chairman for the 2014-2019 period.

The then PPP chairman, Surya Dharma Ali, who was absent in the Surabaya congress and had announced his support the opposition coalition, was dismissed.

However, in November 2014, Surya Dharma Ali, who was facing a corruption charge, and his colleagues organized a congress in Jakarta and elected Djan Faridz to succeed Ali for the 2014-2019 period.

The Justice and Human Rights Ministry, which has the authority to legalize a partys leadership structure, however, issued a decree recognizing PPP under the chairmanship of Romi.

Djan Faridz took a legal action to solve the dispute.

Both district court and the Supreme Court have issued verdicts in favor of PPP under the leadership of Djan Faridz and considered the ministrys decree that recognized the Romi leadership, invalid.

The ministry on January 7, 2016, issued another decree that revoked its recognition of the Romi-led PPP, but did mention about the Faridz-led PPP.

Following comments that the ministerial decree caused a vacuum of PPP leadership, Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly told the press on February 17, 2016, that he issued another decree that recognized the PPP leadership elected in the Bandung congress in 2011 and called for a conciliatory congress to elect PPP leadership.

"Validating again the Decree of the Justice and Human Rights Minister Number: HH-20-AH, 11.01 Year 2012 dated September 4, 2012, on the PPP leadership Structure resulted from the Bandung Congress in 2011 for the period of six months," Yasonna Laoly told the media.

The Bandung congress had elected Surya Dharma Ali as the PPP chairman and Romi as the secretary general.

The Djan Faridz camp however has refused to accept the ministers two decrees for failing to respect the verdicts of the Supreme Court (MA) and the previous court, which have decided that the Djan Faridz-led PPP is the valid one.

Faridz has considered the Pondok Gede congress illegal and planned to bring the case to court again.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016