I

n a bid to curb extravagant political campaigns, the General Elections Commission (KPU) is set to put a cap on campaign spending for candidates and political parties contesting regional elections.

The election body has finished drafting a new regulation with a formula to mandate budget ceilings, which will differ for each region, as mandated by the 2015 Regional Elections (Pilkada) Law.

'€œThe goal is to reduce costs. Our democracy has long been perceived as being too costly. Hopefully with these budget ceilings, we will no longer see extravagant campaigns,'€ KPU legal bureau head Nur Syarifah told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Syarifah said that the regional election organizers (KPUD) would be responsible for coming up with numbers while the KPU would only provide the formula.

KPU commissioner Ida Budhiati said figures for the budget ceiling would come from dividing the number of eligible voters in one region with the number of regencies or municipalities in it. The figure will then be multiplied by the average cost for holding a full-day meeting per person in the region.

With the new regulation, the KPU will also limit donations from individuals and organizations. Private donors will be limited to donating no more than Rp 50 million (US$3,790) while organizations or institutions can only contribute up to Rp 500 million.

Syarifah said that the cap would not cause a problem as some funding would be derived from local government budgets (APBD).

The local governments are expected to pay for public debates to be aired on local television or radio stations, election paraphernalia and print media commercials.

'€œFor commercials on television, we will provide 10 spots, each will last 30 seconds, per day, while commercials on the radio can last up to 60 seconds,'€ KPU commissioner Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah said on Thursday.

Mass-media campaigns will be permitted to start two weeks leading up to the cooling-off period.

As for other types of outdoor campaigning, such as vote canvassing by candidates, they will be funded entirely by candidates themselves, although they could receive financial aid from individuals, organizations and political parties.

Commenting on the budget ceiling, Hanura Party politician Miryam S. Haryani said that her party had no reservations regarding the new rule.

'€œWe see no problems. It is actually great as it could push candidates to rely more on direct vote canvassing so that voters can really learn about who they are voting for and not be blind voters,'€ she told the Post on Thursday.

However, Miryam said that putting a cap on campaign spending was not enough.

'€œWhat about corruption involving regional budgets? We have to be careful with the potential of budgets being abused by an incumbent for campaign purposes,'€ she said.

Miryam said that all stages of regional elections, from campaigning to logistics production, should be funded by the state budget (APBN) to curb wasteful spending and graft.

The KPU said that funds from the state budget could not be used to fund election campaigns.

Syarifah of the KPU said that funding from the APBN could only be used by the central KPU in its work in monitoring and drafting regulations for regional elections, while the KPUDs could only get money from the regional budget.

Representative from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Sudiyatmiko Aribowo also said that his party could support the new provision on campaign funds.

'€œWhat'€™s important about the campaign fund rule is that we need to have clear regulations for all stakeholders. This is to avoid election disputes, which could manifest from different interpretations of the rule,'€ he said on Thursday.
__________________

'€œThe goal is to reduce costs. Our democracy has long been perceived as being too costly.'€