The Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) has asked the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to help ensure the 2014 presidential and legislative elections are free from graft.

DKPP chairman Jimly Asshiddiqie said on Friday that the antigraft body could lend its experience to ensure that next year's elections would be conducted with integrity.

'The partnership aims to protect the integrity of the elections' organizers and to keep an eye on public officials,' he said after meeting KPK commissioners at the KPK headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta, referring to the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) as the organizations responsible for managing elections.

In order to guarantee that the organizers of the 2014 elections commit no illicit practices, Jimly also discussed with the KPK commissioners about the funding for the elections.

'One of the items included in the code of ethics is about funding. The KPU and Bawaslu should not work by using funds outside the state budget and the regional budgets,' he said.

KPK commissioner Zulkarnain said that funds from sources besides the state and regional budgets were prone to illegal practices due to the difficulties in monitoring and auditing them.

The potential for funding abuse was especially rampant when it came to donations from unknown parties, according to Zulkarnain. 'It is better to use the state budget and the regional budgets,' he said.

And if the KPU and Bawaslu had to use funds from sources other than the state, then the stakeholders should keep track of where the money trail, he added.

'The Home Ministry has issued a regulation that stipulates that state budget funds used for elections have to be accounted for and audited. Therefore, funding sources outside the state budget must be reported properly,' Zulkarnain said.

According to Jimly, KPK chairman Abraham Samad had voiced his support for the DKPP, saying the KPK would continue to work together with the council in monitoring the 2014 elections.

Zulkarnain also shared the same sentiment with Abraham, saying that a strong code of ethics was needed to ensure a graft-free election.

'If the elections are only conducted based on existing regulations, then they will still be lacking. Therefore, we also need ethics code,' he said.

Also on Friday, Hasyim Muzadi, the former chairman of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), visited the KPK to ask for help from the commission in supervising the regional elections.

'The KPK has to start supervising before the elections are held in order to save the regional budgets [from being abused] and [prevent] money politics,' Hasyim said. 'Normally, budget mark-ups and other corrupt practices occur before the election actually takes place.'

Zulkarnain, meanwhile, said that the KPK had started supervising elections in some regions. 'Our supervision is focused on financial records at the moment due to limited time,' he said.

The DKPP was established in June last year to supervise the work of the KPU and Bawaslu. So far, it has dismissed 70 staff members from both organizations in several regions.

According to Jimly, most of them were dismissed for not being neutral in carrying out their duties.

'The principles of the KPU and Bawaslu are independence and impartiality; they don't take sides,' he said.

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