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JAKARTA - A decision by Indonesia's top court to quash the corruption conviction of Akbar Tandjung, the House speaker, has had an immediate political impact with a popular candidate for the presidential nomination of his Golkar party pulling out in protest.
Indonesia's Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a three-year sentence against Mr Tandjung for misappropriating Rp40bn ($4.8m, €3.7m, £2.5m) in state funds in adecision labelled by local activists as an embarrassment for the country's judiciary and Jakarta's supposed fight against corruption.
The decision prompted the original trial judge to say he would offer his resignation. But it also prompted the withdrawal of Sultan Hamengku Buwono X of Jogjakarta from the Golkar race, reducing its cast of presidential candidates to six. While the sultan had been seen to be lagging behind Mr Tandjung, Golkar's chairman, and his main rival, retired General Wiranto, his popularity on Java, home to the majority of Indonesia's 147m voters, made him an important figure for Golkar.
The sultan was also unequivocal in relaying why he quit the race, telling reporters yesterday that his "main reason" for abandoning it after months of work had been the Supreme Court's verdict. General Wiranto, Mr Tandjung's now-bitter political rival, took the verdict in his stride, visiting the Golkar chairman at his Jakarta home late Thursday to offer his congratulations.
But activists yesterday lashed out against the verdict, calling for a moratorium on future decisions by the Supreme Court and for all of its judges to be subjected to scrutiny. "This is the biggest judicial scandal of the reform era," said A. Muhammad Asrun, the head of Judicial Watch Indonesia, a legal monitoring group. Local analysts and western diplomats said yesterday that the political repercussions remained unclear.
While the verdict freed Mr Tandjung to make a run at Golkar's nomination, Gen Wiranto's campaign appeared to be building support in important rural areas, said Umar Juoro, an economist with close ties to the Golkar party. Some analysts argued yesterday that this week's verdict clears the way for an alliance between Golkar and President Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P that would see Mr Tandjung become Mrs Megawati's vice president.
Mr Juoro, however, said with polls indicating increasing support for Golkar and static support for the PDI-P, many Golkar members were looking forward to a win at April 5 parliamentary elections and a wholehearted run at the presidency later this year.
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