Ezra Sihite & SP/Erwin Cristianson – The scale of corruption involving political parties is only expected to increase in 2013 as parties rely on officials in elected positions nationwide to raise funds for the 2014 elections, an observer says.

Syamsuddin Haris, a political analyst with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said at a discussion on Saturday that he saw no chance of decline in corruption next year.

"The extent of the corruption committed by party officials will not decrease in 2013. If anything, it will increase as we get close to the elections," he said.

The analyst warned that the country should brace itself for corruption allegations as politicians and candidates seek all kinds of ways to raise money for their parties ahead of campaigning in 2014.

"It's well known that one of the primary sources for funding that political parties rely on is money embezzled by their members in public posts, by ministers, governors, legislators or others," Syamsuddin said.

He added that with polls already showing low public trust in political parties, the increase in scandals next year could ultimately push the public to the brink of political apathy, thereby impacting the turnout in the legislative and presidential elections in 2014.

However, he said that even the threat of low voter turnout would not discourage parties from continuing to rake in funding from questionable sources. "Political parties have never had a serious agenda with regard to corruption eradication," he said.

The Clean Indonesia Movement (GIB), an antigraft advocacy group, said it would ramp up its efforts next year to highlight party corruption, in a bid to make voters aware of the track records of parties contesting the elections.

"In 2013 we will see a movement against corrupt parties so that voters in 2014 will know which parties they shouldn't pick," Adhie Massardi, the GIB chairman, said on Sunday.

"So which are the corrupt parties? All those named by the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono," Adhie said, referring to a report issued earlier this year by Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam.

In the report, it was revealed that seven of the nine parties in the House of Representatives, including all six in the ruling coalition, had members who had been charged with or convicted of corruption between October 2004 and September of this year.

The parties not named were the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), which are relatively new and only joined the House in 2009. However, Adhie said this did not guarantee they were clean.