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.