Demand for transparency in presidential campaign funds

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 03/24/2008 11:47 AM | National

Candidates should be required to declare their total campaign spending, including from private and public funding, ahead of the 2009 presidential election, political observers say.

Such a move would limit opportunities for presidential candidates to breach election regulations, observers told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) executive director Hadar N. Gumay said figures running for the 2009 presidential election must be obliged to report any personal money used to finance their campaigns.

"It must be clear where money came from. Was it from a legal source or not?" he added.

Hadar said this requirement should be included in the presidential election bill currently being deliberated at the House of Representatives.

The bill proposed by the government stipulates campaigns may use internal funding sourced from parties that nominate them, donations and the candidates themselves.

The draft law clearly states limits to donations candidates may receive, but does not provide specific rules on internal funding.

Hadar said internal campaign funding may not need to be limited, but should definitely be declared.

"Internal funding could be used as a loophole for candidates to violate election regulations. They could simply claim funds they receive from businesspeople was their own money," he said.

The draft law permits donations from individuals or groups, including private business entities, but not from state owned companies.

The new bill limits the maximum donation an individual could make to Rp 1 billion per person, while the maximum donation from groups was limited to Rp 5 billion each.

These amounts far exceed those permitted in the 2004 presidential election.

Under Indonesia's current presidential legislation, individuals are allowed to donate up to Rp 100 million each to their favorite candidates, while each group or company can give a maximum Rp 750 million.

Lena Maryana Mukti, a member of the House special team deliberating the presidential election bill, could not comment on whether regulations needed to be set for internal campaign funding.

She said, however, the House would impose tougher regulations to ensure accountability and transparency of donations given to every candidate.

Anton Pradjasto of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (Demos) said the increase in limits to individual and collective donations could strengthen capital owners control over political parties (and elections).

"Those in power would no longer be party members but the capital owners," he said, warning this would further widen the gap between political parties and their constituents.

Anton urged constituents to continue pressuring political parties to prevent capital owners from dominating the elections.

House deliberations on the bill are set to resume early May and it is scheduled to be passed mid July.

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