KPU calls for end to conflicts of interest

KPU calls for end to conflicts of interest

Edith Hartanto and Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Members of the General Election Commission (KPU) say the election bill being discussed at the House of Representatives has undermined the independence of the commission.

Pointing to one of the more crucial clauses they say the general secretariat of the KPU has to report to both the Home Affairs Ministry and the KPU members and chairperson.

Article 67 of the bill says that the general secretariat is to report its "operation" to KPU and its "administration" to the Ministry. General secretariat comprises a secretary general and a deputy secretary general.

"It is an ambiguous status as the KPU is still in the ministry's payroll. Their livelihood depends on it but at the same time their brains are working for KPU," said KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti.

Ramlan described the absurd situation as a man whose stomach was attached to the ministry and his head to KPU.

Both KPU secretary general and his deputy were appointed by the Minister of Home Affairs and had the authority to disburse funds but the ones who would be held accountable were the KPU members, Ramlan said.

"We are proposing that a revision is made to allow KPU to draft its own budget directly and get approval from the Ministry of Finance and House of Representatives," said the professor from Airlangga University's school of social and political science.

The bill also says that the secretary general has to be a civil servant whereas KPU members are independent and professional individuals.

KPU members also do not have the authority to set up local level commissions as this power is in the hands of the general secretariat.

In this situation political interference is very likely to occur as the secretariat is not separated from the ministry, Ramlan said.

"If the minister is a party man, he can easily influence the secretary general to do favorable things for the party," he said.

Ramlan said that provincial and regional level KPU commissions throughout the country were crucial to ensure its independence.

"Election is the business of trust. Nobody will trust the election results if the commission is not independent in organizing the election," he said.

Separately, KPU member Chusnul Mar'iyah pointed out that an independent KPU could prevent graft at the general secretariat.

In the 1999 election, she said, political party members became bidders for supplying election logistics.

"Imagine a shampoo factory suddenly turning into an ink supplier in a desperate attempt to win the bid in providing ink for ballot printing," she said, citing an example from 1999.

In the end, the bidder providing electoral supplies was allegedly a relative of the secretary-general, Chusnul said.

"Therefore, current KPU members are banned from joining a bid to provide logistics to avoid a conflict of interest as stated in our code of ethics."

To prevent corruption, KPU has set up a code of ethics for their members.

In 1999 the electoral committees at both national and regional levels were only temporary ones.

"The temporary committee should be replaced by permanent regional commissions as well as their secretariat to keep all the inventory and data," Ramlan said.

"After the temporary committees were dissolved following the ballot, many KPU assets, from typewriters to cell phones as well as records of election violations and the voter database went missing without a trace," he added.

The permanent presence of KPU, structured from the top down, was also needed to regularly update voters as well as a population registration to prevent vote-rigging, he said.

"Without accurate data on the number of voters and the population, it is easy for certain parties to manipulate and possibly mark-up the real number," Ramlan said.