Erwida Maulia and Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – At least 36 people, mostly legislative candidates from various political parties, were sentenced to prison during the open election campaign period for violating the General Elections Law, the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) stated in Jakarta on Monday.
The convicted legislative candidates are now either fighting to appeal their sentences or have accepted jail as their punishment.
Bawaslu Chairman Nur Hidayat Sarbini said beside the 36 individuals known to have been convicted, the poll monitoring body also reported more than 2,120 other cases during the 21-day open campaign period. "The most frequent violation was involving children in large-scale rallies, followed by vote buying," Nur Hidayat said.
He said out of the 38 parties contesting the April 9 elections, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Democratic Party and the Golkar Party committed the most violations.
However, Presidential spokesman and Democratic Party deputy chairman Andi Mallarangeng said the party would seek clarification from Bawaslu over the allegations.
Andi claimed his party always told its supporters not to bring children to the campaigns, but that it was difficult to enforce.
"Yes, there was a ban on involving children in campaigns. If participants still brought their children, then that is their own responsibility," he said, referring to a similar statement from KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary.
Bawaslu also announced it was now in the middle of investigating thousands of other violation cases, including allegations of vote buying in Ponorogo, East Java, implicating President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's youngest son Edy Baskoro Yudhoyono.
"We are in the middle of clarifying the allegations at the mo-ment," Widyaningsih, a Bawaslu member overseeing legal and violation reports, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Edy is a Democratic Party legislative candidate, with Ponorogo being one of the regencies belonging to his electoral district.
Widyaningsih said the allegations originated from a report written up by a resident in Ponorogo several days ago. The resident claimed he was given money together with a sticker depicting the President's son.
Widyaningsih said officials from the Ponorogo Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) had tried to clarify the reported allegations with this resident, but lost could not locate him.
"Our officials have lost track of this resident. They summoned the resident for questioning and clarification, but he did not show up," she added.
However, another Bawaslu member, Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo, said local Panwaslu officials had vowed to continue investigating the case. "We need to clarify what actually happened," he said.
Under the General Elections Law, those found guilty of vote buying can face up to six months in prison.
Meanwhile, Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD said theoretically the upcoming election results could be denied legal confirmation if the Bawaslu discovered that widespread, systematic misappropriation had occurred during the election lead up.
[Wahyoe Boediwardhana contributed to the story from Malang.]