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n an apparent move to put further pressure on the General Elections Commission (KPU), lawmakers from the House of Representatives Commission II that supervises the national election body unexpectedly cornered KPU commissioners over alleged irregularities discovered in the use of money budgeted between 2013 and 2014.

Commission II lawmakers, particularly from the Golkar Party, slammed the KPU over the discovery by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) that allegedly involved Rp 334 billion (US$24.93 million) in irregularities during a meeting on Monday, which was marred by a war of words between KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik and the lawmakers.

A tough debate involving several members of Commission II, which oversees home affairs, and Husni instantly emerged as soon as Commission II chairman Rambe Kamarulzaman of Golkar announced that the meeting would discuss the BPK'€™s findings, over which the KPU quickly raised objections.

'€œAccording to the invitation, we were summoned here to discuss the PKPU [the KPU'€™s regulation on the simultaneous elections that are slated to take place on Dec. 9],'€ Husni said while approaching the seats of the Commission II chairman to show the letter as soon as Rambe completed his opening remarks.

Husni'€™s move immediately provoked stronger criticism from several lawmakers, such as Golkar'€™s Misbakhun, who is a member of Commission XI on finance but assigned by the party to attend the meeting as a temporary aide and said that the '€œKPU intentionally attempts to avoid discussing the matter with us'€.

The KPU, however, won support from other lawmakers, particularly from parties within the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition, such as Luthfi A Mutty of the NasDem Party, who showed a text message from the House directorate general showing that the meeting was scheduled to discuss the KPU'€™s regulation on the local elections, not the BPK'€™s findings.

Golkar has been split since it underwent a leadership schism last year and is currently on the brink of being disqualified from participating in the upcoming concurrent local elections in December because of its dual leadership with both Aburizal Bakrie and Agung Laksono vying for the helm.

The move to audit the election body was initiated by the House not long after the KPU declined to comply with the House'€™s demand to revise the 2015 Local Elections Law and the 2011 Political Parties Law '€“ a condition required to revise the KPU'€™s regulation on local elections in order to allow the split parties to participate in them.

The KPU regulations, also known as PKPU, have been seen as a burden for Aburizal'€™s camp, which later initiated the audit of the KPU.

The KPU was eventually forced to comply with Commission II'€™s demand to address the BPK report, which found around 14 irregularities in the disbursement of the KPU'€™s budget that included fictitious spending, double payouts, price mark-ups and spending on personal interests during the 2014 general elections.

Citing the BPK'€™s findings, Rambe of Golkar, for example, detailed that fictitious spending for procurement, as well as official travel by commissioners, cost around Rp 900 million, double payouts reached around Rp 32 million and improper procurements amounted to around Rp 20 billion.

Rambe also cited unpaid salaries for honorary staffers within the KPU and its branch offices that accumulated to around Rp 993 million in an apparent move to highlight the amount of irregularities in the KPU.

KPU commissioners did not provide elaborate responses to Commission II throughout the meeting, but stressed to lawmakers that the institution was carrying out its own review to follow up on the BPK'€™s findings.