Jakarta – Election watchdog the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) predicted that political parties will use election campaigns to collect as much illicit funding as possible.

Chairman of Perludem Didik Supriyanto said it was a "tradition" during political campaigns for political parties to collect donations from businesses in the country.

"Using the excuse that they will need funds for campaigning, parties will force businesspeople and companies to donate funds," Didik said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Perludem had earlier suggested that the government should incrementally increase financial aid for political parties to dissuade them from dishonest practices.

Perludem alleged that most political parties in Indonesia engaged in money politics, apparently because they only received meager amounts of money from the government.