Vitorio Mantalean, Jakarta – Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) says the reason given by the General Election Commission (KPU) for cancelling the obligation for 2024 election participants to submit Campaign Fund Contribution Reports (LPSDK) makes no sense.
Earlier, the KPU said that the move was taken because the campaign period for the 2024 elections was very short compared to previous ones (75 days) and the LPSDK is not included in Law Number 7/2017 on Elections.
"Using the reason that the campaign period is short really doesn't make sense as an excuse for cancelling the LPSDK obligations. This is because the report administration process is not borne by the KPU, but by political parties", said ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana in a statement on Monday June 5.
Ramadhana emphasised that the KPU is an independent institution so it should be able to make its own provisions as long as they do not conflict with legislation.
In the case of the LPSDK, the KPU should not have to worry about the short campaign period because the KPU only accepts and verifies it for publication to the public.
"In addition to this, the LPSDK practice has been going on for a long time and every election participant should know about it", said Ramadhana.
"We are concerned that the actions of KPU members [in cancelling the LPSDK obligation] was only to accommodate the political interests of election participants who do not want to be preoccupied with administrative matters of financial reporting", he said.
Meanwhile, the argument that the LPSDK was not included in the Election Law is considered as an interpretation that is too textual. The Election Law provides a mandate for this kind of thing even though it does not explicitly mention the issue of LPSDK.
"The obligation to hand over a LPSDK must be interpreted as a direct mandate from the three election principles stipulated under Article 3 of the Election Law, namely honesty, openness and accountability. Not only that, the urgent imperative of the LPSDK fulfills [the requirements of] Article 4b of the Election Law which states that the regulations on holding elections aim to realise elections that are fair and have integrity", said Ramadhana.
Notes
According to the national police's police criminal investigation unit (Bareskrim), there are indications that dirty money from drug trafficking is already being used to fund legislative candidates in a number of regions across Indonesia.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "ICW Nilai Tak Masuk Akal Alasan KPU Hapus Wajib Lapor Sumbangan Kampanye Pemilu 2024".]