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Money politics involved in upcoming elections, expert says
Preparing the election: In this photo from Wednesday, Dec
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Preparing the election: In this photo from Wednesday, Dec. 2, an official at the South Tangerang General Election Comission (KPU) prepares files needed to run the regional election in South Tangerang. Indonesia will hold simultaneous regional elections across the country on Dec. 9. (Tempo/Marifka Wahyu Hidayat) (KPU) prepares files needed to run the regional election in South Tangerang. Indonesia will hold simultaneous regional elections across the country on Dec. 9. (Tempo/Marifka Wahyu Hidayat)
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span class="inline inline-center">Preparing the election: In this photo from Wednesday, Dec. 2, an official at the South Tangerang General Election Comission (KPU) prepares files needed to run the regional election in South Tangerang. Indonesia will hold simultaneous regional elections across the country on Dec. 9. (Tempo/Marifka Wahyu Hidayat)
Money politics, a term used to describe vote-buying practices in democracies, has tainted the upcoming regional elections scheduled for Dec. 9, an expert has said. Such practices flourish due to the lack of accountability in campaign fund-raising.
Wawan Suyatmika, a researcher at Transparency International Indonesia (TII), has predicted that money politics would be thoroughly present in December's elections, 'either in the dark or in the bright room'.
"Money politics remains. Whether you like it or not, the interests of businesspeople have circled around our democracy," he said as quoted by tempo.co at a discussion entitled 'Transparency and Regional Elections', in Jakarta, on Saturday.
In a bid to prevent money politics, Wawan said that more monitoring needed to take place and all public officials should declare their independence from conflicts of interest.
Furthermore, campaign funding sources should be made more transparent. The addresses and identities of donors contributing to campaign funds should be made available to the public, Wawan argued.
"Regulations to prevent oligarchic practices are on the books, but the election mafia has leaped further ahead. We need public accountability, at least to find out who are the donors and how much have they paid," he said.
Indonesia will hold nationally-concurent regional elections on Wednesday, Dec. 9 to elect the new leaders of 269 regional governments.
Khoirunnisa Agustyati, a researcher at the Association for Democracy and Elections, said there were at least 10 regional elections that would put forward candidates with a strong business background.
'We need strong tools to monitor the regional elections,' she argued. (ags)
