Activists have welcomed a new regulation that will allow greater scrutiny of the way political parties and legislative candidates receive and spend campaign funds, saying such legislation was long overdue.
Last week, the General Elections Commission (KPU) said it was formulating a regulation that would require legislative candidates and political parties to disclose all their finances, including records of their bank accounts.
“I think the idea of campaign funding [transparency] is very good,” Titi Anggaraini, executive director of election watchdog the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), said on Sunday.
Indonesia Budget Center researcher Darwanto noted that 15 ministers and many regional leaders were vying for the 550 seats in the House of Representatives in next year’s legislative election, saying if campaign funds continue to go unrecorded, the hopefuls could tap state and regional coffers to finance their campaigns.
In the months leading to the 2009 legislative elections, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested dozens of lawmakers, governors and district heads for embezzlement and bribery allegedly committed to finance their political campaigns.
Darwanto predicted similar incidents might occur as the 2014 election draws near.
KPK prosecutors recently told the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court the money from a bribe linked to the beef import quota scandal that allegedly went to former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq was destined for his party.
The KPK alleges that Maria Elizabeth Liman, president director of Indoguna, the company embroiled in the scandal, had promised to provide the PKS with Rp 40 billion ($4.1 million), provided Luthfi help her company secure an additional 8,000-ton beef import quota for 2013.
IBC’s Darwanto said regional coffers are most vulnerable to embezzlement, with the central government recently having introduced the so-called “de-concentrated funds” aimed at aiding development in the regions.
“Corruption now mostly affects the regions,” he said.
Another IBC researcher, Sri Niliwati, said the legislature was unlikely to monitor these funds. With 90 percent of legislature members eying re-election, most will be too busy campaigning, she said.
Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Abdullah Dahlan earlier said the KPU should have issued the regulation before political parties submitted their list of candidates participating in the 2014 legislative election.
The ICW researcher argued that by not formulating the regulation earlier, the KPU has allowed those expenses already incurred by political parties when choosing candidates to go unrecorded, because the KPU regulations are not retrospective.
Abdullah highlighted cases where hopefuls pay party officials to be included in the list of candidates, as well as cases where candidates buy votes during the election.
Although it is unclear what form the final KPU regulation will take, Abdullah said “the bank accounts of all legislative candidates must be subjected to public scrutiny,” adding that political parties and candidates must also disclose their campaign funding sources.
“We don’t want funds from criminal activities being used to finance political campaigns.”
by: Carlos Baath & Rizky Amelia
