Partai Demokrat

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 the basic concepts left Rumangkang in charge of forming the Party.

From 12th-19th August 2001, Rumangkang began holding a series 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 19th August and on the 20th August 2001, the basic outline of the (PD) was finalized.

On 9th September 2001 (in which Yudhoyono turns 52), the formation of PD was officially declared and on 10th September 2001, it was enlisted at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

PD also elected Subur Budhisantoso as Party Chairman.

2004 Legislative Elections

PD won 7.5% share of votes and won 57 out of 550 seats of People's Representative Council in the 2004 legislative election and finished in fifth place overall.

2004 Presidential Elections

PD nominated Yudhoyono as its Presidential Candidate with Jusuf Kalla as the Vice Presidential Candidate. In this, they were also supported by the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI). Yudhoyono and Kalla won the first round of elections in July 2004 with 33.6% of the votes and would go on to win 60.1% in the run-offs and thereby securing Yudhoyono's election as President.

2005 Party Congress

In May 2005, PD held its first Party Congress.

During the congress, Hadi Utomo was elected as Chairman. Nevertheless, the highest authority in the Party belonged to Yudhoyono who was elected was Chairman of the Executive Board (Ketua Dewan Pembina).

List of Chairman

• Subur Budhisantoso (2001-2005)
• Hadi Utomo (2005-)