G

erindra Party chairman and presidential election loser Prabowo Subianto says he will dismiss three lawmakers from his party for their decision to skip a plenary session on the Regional Elections Bill at the House of Representatives late last week.

Prabowo sent instructions before the plenary session that all Gerindra lawmakers should attend the meeting to support the push for indirect elections.

However, only 22 of his lawmakers attended the session.

He said he could not tolerate the absence of the three lawmakers, who were identified as Supriyanto, Soemarjati Arjoso and Dhohir Farisi, who is also the husband of Yenny Zannuba Wahid, the daughter of the country'€™s fourth president, Abdurrahman '€œGus Dur'€ Wahid.

Prabowo, a former son-in-law of the late president Suharto, said the dismissal would serve as punishment for the three lawmakers.

He said the punishment would be given despite the fact that his camp had succeeded in scrapping direct elections for regional heads and replace them with indirect elections across Indonesia.

'€œI am very disappointed because our three lawmakers did not participate in the making of this important decision for the country,'€ he said.

Prabowo also said he would summon the three lawmakers as soon as possible.

Like Gerindra, the Golkar Party, which is a member of the Red-and-White Coalition led by Prabowo'€™s Gerindra, will also punish 11 of its lawmakers who did not comply with the party'€™s instructions.

Golkar will punish the 11 lawmakers for having favored direct regional elections, a choice upheld by president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s coalition when a vote was conducted during the plenary
session.

Previously, Golkar lawmaker Zainuddin Amali revealed that he, along with 10 colleagues, had received a reprimand from the party'€™s central executive board for voting in favor of direct elections instead of complying with the party'€™s orders.

He said the 10 colleagues were Poempida Hidayatullah, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, Nusron Wahid, Emil Abeng, Neil Iskandar, Oheo Sinapoy, Gusti Iskandar, Chairuman Harahap, Nudirman Munir and Taufik Hidayat.

On Friday last week, Golkar saw a total of 84 lawmakers attending the plenary session.

Poempida, Nusron and Agus were earlier fired from the party for supporting Jokowi'€™s presidential campaign.

The three young politicians fought back by filing a lawsuit against Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie, seeking Rp 1 trillion (US$85 million).