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
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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