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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Denial: Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum gives his side of story about the controversy surrounding the SEA Games Athletes Village project to journalists in Jakarta, on Thursday. He claimed to have had nothing to do with the Athletes Village project budget.President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party will likely face major political turbulence next year if its rivals exploit the Bank Century bailout and recent graft allegations in the run up to the elections in 2014.

Ray Rangkuti, the director of the Indonesian Civilized Circle (Lima), said that the Democratic Party had placed itself in a vulnerable position after it failed to prevent lawmakers from its two largest coalition partners, the Golkar Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), from renewing the remit for a special team monitoring the investigation of the government’s Rp 6.7 trillion bailout of Bank Century in 2008.

The House found indications of unlawful activity during the bailout last year.

“The existence of such a team sends a signal to the President and his administration that lawmakers might use their right to question and initiate an impeachment campaign some time between next year and 2013,” he said.

The House announced on Thursday that it authorized the special team to continue until December 2012, over the objections of Democratic Party lawmakers. Those supporting the extension said that the bailout had not been adequately investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The Democratic Party has also been plagued by allegations made by graft defendant Muhammad Nazaruddin, the party’s former treasurer, who recently claimed that several party figures, including lawmaker Angelina Sondakh and Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, were involved in a corruption scandal surrounding the Southeast Asian Games.

With the KPK’s newly-elected leaders promising to forge a “closer” relationship with Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Ray said that the House would find potential investigations involving the ruling party “interesting things to follow up.”

“Just like a boxing match, the rivals of the Democratic Party know that it is still too early to knock Yudhoyono out, but some powerful jabs will, of course, keep him busy,” Ray said.

Sukardi Rinakit, a political observer from the Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate, said that the tumult might affect the Democratic Party’s prospects in 2014, adding that it “might only be able to collect half of its total votes in 2009”.

Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, however, remained confident despite the potential fallout. “Dark clouds may be brought in by the wind or turn into rain, but the sky will always be blue,” Anas told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

House speaker and Democratic Party executive board deputy chief Marzuki Alie played down concerns on the graft allegations, saying that the party was “calm and collected”.

“We are still optimistic. A party can’t become a big party if it doesn’t suffer big battering. Sooner or later, the public will see proof that [the party] is clean and, when that time comes, our voters will come back to us,” Marzuki said on Thursday.

In a hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Wednesday, Nazaruddin alleged that his former colleague, Angelina, admitted receiving Rp 9 billion from Andi in connection with corruption surrounding the SEA Games. (sat)