Bandjela Paliudju (born 3 March 1945) is an Indonesian military officer and politician who served as the governor of Central Sulawesi from 1996 until 2001 and 2006 until 2011.

[3] His position as commander was his peak career in the military, as in 1989 he was already nominated as a candidate for the Regent of Donggala.

He was promoted to the rank of colonel while he was the Regent of Donggala[3] and to brigadier general on 1 April 1995 while he was the chairman of the Central Sulawesi's branch of Golkar.

[10] As 2001 became Paliudju's last year in his first five-year term, a gubernatorial election in Central Sulawesi was held.

Paliudju decided to seek re-election and was nominated by the Armed Forces group in the parliament.

Meanwhile, his opposition, Central Sulawesi parliament speaker Aminuddin Ponulele and Mayor of Palu Rully Azis Lamadjido, was nominated by the Golkar party.

Member of Parliament Nawawi S. Kilat proposed in an electoral meeting to conduct the election with an open ballot.

After a bitter debate with other members, Ponulele, who acted as the parliament speaker, refused to accept Kilat's proposal and decided to hold the election with a secret ballot.

Several days before the ceremony, Ponulele was involved in an academic scandal, where he was accused of plagiarizing the scientific papers of Professor Surna Djajadiningrat, the director general of mining and energy.

Minister of Home Affairs, who was initially planned to install Ponulele on 16 February, instructed the provincial government to delay the swearing in ceremony until the plagiarism case was resolved.

Paliudju picked Achmad Yahya, the head of Palu's telecommunications bureau, as his running mate.