Gubernatorial Hopefuls May Have Violated Campaign Law

Jakarta Globe

The country’s most prominent antigraft watchdog said on Sunday that it had discovered violations in the campaign funding disclosure of the gubernatorial candidates in this month’s election in Jakarta.

By law, all six pairs running for the Jakarta governor and deputy governor’s posts must disclose their wealth and sources of their campaign finances. The disclosures were verified by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in June.

But the funding reports were not disclosed by the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD), which received the first round of reports on June 23, a day before campaigning officially started.

“The KPUD had not performed its mandate under the 2004 [election] law, which requires it to publish campaign funding reports in the mass media,” Indonesia Corruption Watch said in a statement.

By not disclosing the results, it added, the KPUD also violated the public’s right for information as stipulated under the 2008 Law on Freedom of Information.

The ICW said it had obtained copies of the KPUD’s initial reports and found that several candidates had failed to identify some of their individual and corporate campaign donors.

Several donors, the group said, exceeded the Rp 50 million ($5,400) limit for individual donations or the Rp 350 million limit for organizations. Some donors tried to bypass the regulation by registering under different names, the ICW said, but scrutiny revealed that some had the same addresses suggesting that they came from the same people.

The ICW did not disclose names of the candidates involved or their donors.

Donors and candidates violating regulations could face between four and 24 months in prison and be fined Rp 200 million to Rp 1 billion. Providing false campaign funding information is punishable of between two and 12 months in jail.