The national polls commission said Tuesday it had received bank account numbers and initial campaign fund reports from all the 38 political parties contesting next month’s legislative elections.
The General Elections Commission (KPU) made the announcement in response to an earlier call to disqualify the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) from the elections for failing to submit its detailed financial report.
“All parties, including the PDI-P, have reported their bank account details and initial campaign budget reports, so there is no need to enclose the balance and cash flow in the reports,” KPU member I Gusti Putu Artha told reporters.
Article 134 of the 2008 election law obliges each party to submit an initial campaign fund report and special bank account to the KPU seven days before the start of the open campaign period.
The law also requires independent candidates for Regional Representatives Council (DPD) seats to submit similar reports. There are 1,109 candidates contesting for DPD seats in the legislative elections.
It also obliges parties competing in local areas to report their initial campaign funds to regional elections bodies (KPUDs).
Parties failing to report their initial campaign budget and bank account numbers will be disqualified from the legislative elections, according to the law.
The ‘open’ campaign period will begin on March 16 and last until April 5, 2009.
Legislative elections will take place on April 9, with nearly 12,000 legislative candidates from the 38 parties competing for 560 seats at the House of Representatives.
Data from the KPU suggests the PDI-P’s initial campaign fund stood at Rp 1 billion, far lower than the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra), which topped campaign fund levels for the major parties at Rp 15 billion.
The Democratic Party of incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhiyono has raised an initial campaign fund of Rp 7 billion, the Golkar Party has Rp 156 million and the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) has Rp 5 billion.
The Marhaenism Indonesian National Party (PNI Marhaenism) submitted the lowest initial campaign budget report, with only Rp 670,000.
Putu further said all political parties must report details of their campaign budgets, including sources of the money and total spending, to appointed KPU public accountants within 15 days of the elections.
“The KPU will not announce its elected legislative candidates if the party fails to enclose detailed descriptions of its campaign spending,” he said.
The KPU said that only five parties had submitted “complete” reports of their campaign budgets — the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Indonesian Workers and Employers Party (PPPI), the Concern for National Functioning Party (PKPB) and the National People Concerned Party (PPRN).
The Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) earlier urged the KPU to drop the PDI-P from the legislative elections, claiming it had failed to hand over an initial campaign budget in detail to the polls body.
Bawaslu member Wahidah Suaib said the quality of campaign budget reports being submitted by parties to the KPU was concerning.
She said the reports on campaign budgets did not provide the identities of their funding sources.
The election law allows individuals to donate a maximum Rp 1 billion to a campaign fund, while groups ,corporations and NGOs must not exceed Rp 5 billion each in donations.
Election watchdogs have called on the KPU to tightly monitor campaign budgets and private donors to prevent any money politics in the upcoming elections.
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