Uncertainty hits campaign law

Uncertainty hits campaign law

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

Auditors are at a loss of how to classify one source of campaign
funds of one of the five presidential candidates in the July 5
election, says the elections commission.

The Wiranto-Solahuddin Wahid ticket raised Rp 8 billion from
"Warung Wiranto" (Wiranto's street stalls) set up throughout the
country during last month's campaign period, but such fund-
raising is not stipulated in the Presidential Election Law, says
a commission official.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has tasked five public
auditors to look into the campaign funds of the five presidential
candidates vying in the election.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said on Wednesday that the
auditors ended up categorizing the money as donations from "other
sources".

The law identifies a donation as money given by an individual
or an institution, but not money earned through street stalls, he
said.

The stalls sold numerous items including food, drinks and
souvenirs.

KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said the auditors also found
that three of the presidential candidates had received campaign
funds from donors who could not be verified.

The three include President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Amien Rais
and election front-runner Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The law defines unconfirmed fund sources as bogus names on
donation lists after auditors fail to locate the individuals and
their addresses upon field checks.

The KPU, however, is not very clear in its follow-up even
though the law states that candidates can be disqualified if
found to have received funds from individuals or institutions
with a doubtful identity.

"We will assess this finding to determine if further action is
required," Mulyana said in a news briefing at the KPU office.

The amount of unconfirmed campaign funds received by Megawati
is Rp 5.3 million while those of Susilo is Rp 10.2 million. The
funds have been transferred to the state treasury.

The law stipulates that candidates will face criminal charges
if they fail to hand over questionable funds to the state.

Amien is the only candidate to fail to hand over funds deemed
questionable, amounting to Rp 53.9 million, Mulyana said.

He said no candidate had submitted a flawless report.

"Campaign teams of all five presidential candidates have been
cooperative, but their reports were incomplete," he said.

Ramlan said the reports failed to identify donations from
third parties, including donations of campaign materials, such as
T-shirts, and disbursements of "transportation fees" for
supporters.

The audit also found that Hamzah Haz spent 89 percent of his
campaign funds on advertising in the media, Megawati 10 percent
and Amien 35 percent, he said.

According to Ramlan, the auditors picked 30 individual donors
and 30 institutional donors at random as a sampling for
verification.

Mulyana said that his office had yet to receive reports of
alleged violations of campaign funds by the candidates from the
Indonesian Corruption Watch or Transparency International.

Candidates Income
Expenses

===============================================================

Wiranto - Solahuddin 87,711,019,405 Rp
86,232,057,005

Megawati - Hasyim 144,844,370,000
Rp 85,940,551,128

Amien - Siswono 31,500,424,159
Rp 31,628,044,127

Susilo - Kalla 71,712,588,310
Rp 71,225,675,216

Hamzah - Agum 16,248,561,463
Rp 16,248,378,120

Source: KPU