Wiranto biggest vote buyer in campaign: NGOs

Wiranto biggest vote buyer in campaign: NGOs

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

Corruption watchdogs say Gen. (ret) Wiranto tops the list of
presidential candidates who have practiced vote buying in their
campaigns, while President Megawati Soekarnoputri was deemed the
most prone to misuse state facilities.

The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and Indonesian
Transparency International (TI) said here Thursday that Wiranto,
nominated by the Golkar Party, spent almost Rp 60 million
(US$6,300) distributing cash and gifts to prospective voters on
his campaign trail during the first two weeks of the month.

Head of Wiranto's national team Slamet Effendi Yusuf said the
allegations were "all lies." "How come dozens of journalists
covering our campaigns have never raised this ... And where does
Golkar get so much money to throw away?"

The allegations were aimed to discredit Golkar and the
Wiranto-Solahuddin Wahid ticket, he said.

The first round of presidential campaigning began on June 1
and ends on July 1.

Megawati, nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI-P), and running mate Hasyim Muzadi top the list of
candidates who have misused state facilities.

Megawati was flown in an Indonesian Air Force chopper when she
was campaigning in Medan, North Sumatra, Hasan Gamet of TI said.

TI said it discovered Wiranto's team had pledged to give
scholarships to 40 students in the East Java town of Jember,
paying them Rp 600,000 each for a one-year school term.

It also said the team gave out "transportation cost" for his
supporters while campaigning in Bantul, Yogyakarta.

The Megawati-Hamzah team came second in the gift stakes,
allegedly spending more than Rp 17 million distributing free
medicines, T-shirts, instant noodles and other souvenirs.

The pairing of Amien Rais-Siswono Yudhohusodo spent Rp 9.9
million in two campaigns and the pairing of Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono-Jusuf Kalla spent Rp 8 million, the watchdogs said.

No data was available for United Development Party nominees
Hamzah Haz and Agum Gumelar.

The NGOs said candidates had deliberately set up two teams to
handle their campaigns, one of them in charge of vote buying.

The NGOs have made reports to the General Elections
Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) about the allegations.

Panwaslu member Didik Supriyanto said the official supervisory
committee would soon follow up the reports.

Didik said Panwaslu had filed 50 complaints to the police on
vote buying allegations for the April 5 legislative elections
alone.

"Only 10 of the complaints have reached the court, while other
investigations were abandoned by the police, illustrating the
difficulty of proving vote buying is taking place," he said.

If a candidate was caught red-handed buying votes, he or she
would immediately be disqualified from the race, Didik said.