President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denied that he did not intentionally meet a recent summons from the Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) as he had never received an official summons from the agency, says presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha.
“As of today, April 5, the President has not received a summons from the Bawaslu in connection to the allegation of the use of state money to finance campaigns,” Julian said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
The spokesman instead said that it was State Secretary Sudi Silalahi and Presidential Secretariat head Nanang Dj. Priadi who received Bawaslu’s summons to clarify the allegation.
“Therefore, the state secretary ordered Nanang to fulfill the summons on Friday. The latter was received by Bawaslu commissioners Nelson Simanjuntak, Bernard D. Surtisno and Daniel Zuchron,” Julian added.
The Bawaslu said on Friday that it would summons Yudhoyono, who is also the Democratic Party chairman, to clarify reports that he had abused state facilities to campaign for the party in Lampung.
Bawaslu’s Nelson said Dems’ representatives came to the agency on Friday, asking to reschedule Yudhoyono’s questioning until Monday.
“We will send a second summons on Monday,” Nelson said.
Yudhoyono was reported by the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) last week. KIPP deputy secretary Girindra Sandino said that Yudhoyono flew to Lampung on the presidential plane on a trip paid for by the state and campaigned for the Dems “and nothing else.”
He said using state money to finance political campaigns is a serious violation of the General Elections Law, which stipulates that political campaigns can only be financed by political parties.
Source/Fuente: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/04/05/sby-denies-ignoring-bawasl...
