The West Java Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) has handed over their findings into alleged campaign offenses committed by National Mandate Party (PAN) campaigners to the provincial police.
It is alleged that Vice Governor Yusuf Macan Effendi, better known as Dede Yusuf, was involved in the scandal.
Panwaslu member Ihat Subihat said his office had secured two written statements from members of a school committee as evidence. The offenses allegedly took place at state-run SMAN 5 Cimahi senior high school.
The statements, he said, confirmed that while on an official visit to the school Dede introduced two PAN legislative candidates, Siti Himayati and Dedy Kuswandi, to the school-committee members. The candidates are running in the 2009 general election for the Cimahi electoral district.
"They (school-committee members) also admitted to receiving Rp 50 million from (PAN Chairman) Soetrisno Bachir through the candidates, facilitated by Dede, under the reasoning that it had been promised four months ago for renovating the school," Ihat said.
He said police were confident that the evidence was strong enough to support the alleged campaign offenses the Panwaslu was investigating.
On Monday, West Java KPUD in its plenary session said it also had found strong indications that a violation of the election regulation was committed during Dede's official visit to the school.
"The indication is strong, but we have to be very careful so as to avoid wrongful accusations," said KPUD chairman Ferry Kurnia Rizkiansyah.
He said his office was still looking for a second opinion regarding the matter. It was also discussing the right steps forward if Dede, the two legislative candidates or the political party were found guilty of this alleged violation.
Ferry said the two PAN legislative candidates could be charged under Article 84 of Law No. 10/2008 on the legislative election, for using state and education facilities for campaigning and involving a public official in their campaign.
Dede, he said, could be charged under Article 87 of the same law which requires a public official to take leave from their regular duties if they wish to conduct campaign activities.
Chairman of KPUD's law and community section Teten Setiawan said the commission had the right to impose three types of administrative sanctions regarding the alleged case: a written warning, campaign ban in the respective electoral district and dropping the candidates from the fixed list of candidates.
"We are considering the right action for the case if the existing evidence indeed proves the alleged violation," Teten said.
West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Dade Ahmad said the police was still evaluating the report submitted by the Panwaslu, especially regarding the alleged vote buying involving the Rp 50 million donation for the school.
"We received the report very late Friday afternoon and could only start investigating today," Dade told The Jakarta Post in the provincial capital Monday.
He said this alleged instance of money politics could lead to charges under Article 274 of Law 10/2008, which carries a penalty of between six and 24 months' imprisonment or a fine of between Rp 6 million and Rp 24 million.
