Only four parties submit list of major donors
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta
Only four out of the 24 political parties that contested the legislative elections have submitted to the General Elections Commission (KPU) the names of those who made donations amounting to Rp 5 million (US$581) or more.
According to KPU data, as of Wednesday the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) had submitted the names of 2,692 donors, the Golkar Party 658, the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) 37 and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKP Indonesia) seven.
The election law requires political parties to inform the KPU of the names of all donors who make cash donations to them amounting to Rp 5 million or more.
Donations from an individual person must not exceed Rp 100 million, while the maximum donation allowed on the part of a company is set at Rp 750 million. Violations of the caps on donations carry a four-month jail term and/or a maximum fine of Rp 1 billion.
From the donors, the PDI-P collected Rp 103.56 billion, Golkar Rp 82.6 billion, PDS Rp 1.6 billion, and the PKPI Rp 525 million.
Golkar, however, did not state how much it had received from individuals.
The election law does not provide sanctions for parties that fail to comply with the principle of transparency in their fund- raising programs.
Most political parties, except for the Freedom Bull National Party (PNBK) and the Pioneer Party, submitted their initial accounts to the KPU before the election campaign started on April 11.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the KPU had been focusing on completing the manual ballot count, and had not been able to investigate the question of election campaign funds thoroughly.
The commission is to publicly announce the names of donors.
Political parties have to have their accounts audited by independent accountants by not later than 60 days after the election to check their cash flows during the course of the election campaign.
The accountants must complete their audits within 30 days and report their findings to the KPU within at least seven days thereafter.
To give effect to the ruling, the KPU has issued Instruction No. 30/2004 on guidelines for the audit of political parties and other electoral participants' campaign funds and financial reports.
According to this instruction, which was issued on April 21, political parties and legislative aspirants have to report their campaign funds to the KPU.
Regarding the campaign funds of presidential and vice presidential hopefuls, the candidates must report their campaign funds to the KPU at least three days after presidential election day, scheduled for July 5.
Independent accountants will then audit the campaign fund reports, with such audits being required to be completed within 15 days.