The Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) will question four high-ranking state officials after discovering they are current members of presidential campaign teams.

“These officials already reported to the General Elections Commission (KPU) that they were members of presidential campaign teams,” Bawaslu’s supervisory division coordinator, Wahidah Suaib, told reporters at the office of the State Minister for State Enterprises on Friday.

Bawaslu decided to summon the officials after it was criticized for allowing state officials to join campaign activities.

The state officials include, PT Pertamina commissioner Umar Said,  PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) president commissioner Tanri Abeng and chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Perum Percetakan Uang Republik Indonesia (Peruri) Achdari. Meanwhile, Raden Pardede, president commissioner of PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (PPA) officially resigned Friday evening.  

According to Wahidah, Bawaslu will first invite the officials to clarify their involvement in campaign activities, and will then ask them to choose between their job and their campaign team membership.

“If they break the election law, we will process them in accordance with the regulations,” Wahidah said.

“Officials found to have violated the law will face 6 to 24 months in jail and could be fined up to Rp 50 million [US$4,987].”

The body is now examining all names of state officials in 140 state owned enterprises in order to check if any more officials are members of presidential campaign teams.

The investigation, Bawaslu claims, is important considering that several state officials have been found to be involved in the presidential  campaign.

Previously, the media reported that several prominent state owned enterprise officials were allegedly involved in the Democratic Party-led campaign.

Among them are PT Pertamina president commissioner, Sutanto, commissioner of PT Pos Indonesia Andi Arif and state plantation company commissioner PT PN III Harry Sebayang.

Former National Police chief Sutanto acts as chairman of the advisory board for the Pro-SBY movement, while Andi and Harry are reportedly involved with the Archipelago Network, which has been recruiting former student activists to campaign for SBY.

“It’s already clear that state-owned enterprise commissioners are state officials. Previously there was an assumption that they were not state officials,” Wahidah said.

She acknowledged the body had difficulties in imposing sanctions on commissioners acting as volunteers because their names were not officially registered with the KPU.

“They can also be found guilty according to article 211 of the election law,” Wahidah said.

Article 211 stipulates that state or regional officials are forbidden to give benefits or cause losses to presidential candidates. The article carries a 36-month jail term and a Rp 36 million fine.

State Minister for State-Owned Enterprises Sofyan Djalil said Friday that Bawaslu had the right to determine whether those officials had violated the election law or not. (naf)

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