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Pressure mounts to investigate suspicious campaign funding
Allegations have emerged of illicit money flowing into campaigns for the 2024 general election, prompting calls for the authorities to investigate.
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Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis Center (PPATK) head Ivan Yustiavandana attends a hearing with lawmakers at the House of Representatives on Jan. 31, 2022. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
Allegations have emerged of illicit money flowing into campaigns for the 2024 general election, after the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) recently flagged an abnormally high number of suspicious transactions ahead of the February 2024 polls.
The suspicions, if proven, could spell trouble for the integrity of next year’s elections – and even implicate a frontrunner – piling pressure on the authorities to properly investigate.
Just days after a heated first presidential debate last week, PPATK head Ivan Yustiavandana revealed that the number of suspicious transactions the center had recorded had more than doubled after the official campaign period commenced on Nov. 28.
No official sum was released, but Ivan said the rupiah figure was in the trillions and that law enforcement officials, the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) had been alerted.
On Friday, Ivan said the PPATK had flagged transactions from bank accounts outside of those specifically designated for funding candidates’ campaigns, also known as RKDK accounts.
He told Tempo.co later that day that the agency had also discovered some campaigns being funded by the operation of illegal mines and the misappropriation of funds from rural micro lenders (BPR) in Central Java.
Regarding the latter, Ivan said the PPATK had flagged a total of 27 borrowers that took out loans totaling Rp 100 billion (US$6.5 million) since last year. The borrowed funds were immediately withdrawn from the borrowers’ accounts and stored in a bank account owned by an individual identified only by their initials, MIA, who the PPATK believes is acting in the interest of an unnamed political party.
