Jakarta. Activists on Friday slammed the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) for dismissing reports about alleged campaign violations by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Democratic Party chairman.
“There is an impression that the Bawaslu chairman is siding with Yudhoyono as if he wants to protect the president,” Said Salahuddin, from the group People’s Synergy for Democracy, said on Friday.
Critics lambasted Yudhoyono for allegedly using state facilities for political campaigning purposes — a clear violation of electoral law.
Yudhoyono reportedly flew to Lampung province earlier this week on board the taxpayer-funded presidential plane to attend a Democratic Party campaign.
“How can the Bawaslu prematurely state that this could not be classified as an election violation? The election supervisory body can only determine whether or not a case should be called a violation after conducting a series of investigations and legal studies,” Said said.
He said the case could set a bad precedent and would prevent people from reporting alleged election violations because they believed the body would not respond to the report properly.
Muhammad, the Bawaslu chairman, previously argued that Yudhoyono should be allowed to use the plane because it was part of the facilities that he as the president was entitled to use.
Said called the argument unacceptable. He said Muhammad should be able to differentiate between public and private interests, adding that the election law stipulated that the only state-owned assets allowed to be used by a president during political campaigning was their security detail, and therefore the use of the plane should be classified as a violation.
“Therefore Yudhoyono must report the use of the plane to the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK],” Said said.
Golkar Party legislator Bambang Soesatyo said the Bawaslu should sanction any party committing violations during the campaign period, which ends on April 5.
“I hope Bawaslu will be able to identify the alleged violation committed by Yudhoyono and sanction the Democratic Party,” he said.
However, according to a report in Suara Pembaruan, a member of the presidential staff says the president used a commercial flight for the journey to Lampung, departing from a public terminal.
Source/Fuente: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/row-presidents-flight-lampung/
