Democratic Party

The Democratic Party is a constitutional populist political party in Indonesia. It was founded on 9 September 2001. It states its ideology to be based on Pancasila. Origins The 2001 Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly which resulted in Megawati Sukarnoputri's election as president of Indonesia caused a vacancy in the position of vice president. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was one candidate who competed for the vice presidency, losing out to Hamzah Haz. Yudhoyono's supporters saw Yudhoyono's participation in the vice presidential election as a sign of his popularity and recognized Yudhoyono's potential as a possible leader for Indonesia. One of these supporters, Vence Rumangkang, approached Yudhoyono with the idea of forming a political party to help shore up support for the 2004 presidential elections. Yudhoyono approved of the idea and, after going through the basic concepts, left Rumangkang in charge of forming the party. From 12 to 19 August 2001, Rumangkang began holding a series of meetings to discuss the formation of the party while holding consultations with Yudhoyono, who was now serving as the coordinating minister for Politics and Security. Yudhoyono personally led the meeting on 19 August and on 20 August 2001, the basic outline of the party was finalized.