The tight competition has urged a number of candidates to seek funding that is sometimes sourced from corruption.
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JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The 2018 simultaneous regional elections are being contested by candidates for regional head positions and those who wish to prepare themselves for the bigger fight of the 2019 general elections. The tight competition has urged a number of candidates to seek funding that is sometimes sourced from corruption.
Monday (12/2) will see the start of the official announcement of candidates in the 2018 simultaneous regional elections, which costs Rp 18 trillion (US$1.31 billion). Several of the 1,160 regional head candidates registered to contest in 171 regional elections have been arrested by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
On Sunday, Ngada regent and East Nusa Tenggara gubernatorial candidate Marianus Sae arrived at the KPK’s Jakarta headquarters. He was arrested for allegedly receiving billions of rupiah in bribes for projects in his region.
On Feb. 3, the KPK arrested East Java’s Jombang Regent Nyono Suharli Wihandoko. Nyoto, who had registered with the local election commission (KPU) to run in the 2018 regional election, was alleged of receiving bribes from the acting head of the Jombang Health Agency, reportedly using part of the money to pay for campaign ads (Kompas, 3/2).
In line with Law No. 10/2016 on regional elections, Marianus and Nyono are still eligible to run in the elections up until a final and binding ruling is issued on their respective cases. If they withdraw from the elections, the political parties that support them will not be able to propose replacement candidates. If the decision to withdraw is made after the local KPU has officially announced them as electoral candidates, they will be liable to a fine of Rp 20 billion (US$1.46 million) for gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial candidates and Rp 10 billion for mayor/regent and deputy mayor/regent candidates.
The recent series of cases serve as a serious warning on the quality of local elections. The state has so far disbursed RP 10.5 trillion for the 2018 regional elections.
Cost
KPU commissioner Ilham Saputra said in Jakarta over the weekend that most of the election fund was used for the salaries of election organizers and to cover partial costs of the candidates’ campaigns.
The candidates and their campaign teams still need to ready funding for socialization and witnesses’ wages.
A review of the campaign fund receipt and usage reports (LPPDK) submitted to the KPU for the 2017 elections shows that gubernatorial election candidates spent Rp 15.7 billion on average. In Jakarta, the campaign fund for a pair of candidates was estimated to be between Rp 50 billion and Rp 60 billion. However, the LPPDK figures are far lower than the actual amounts the candidates spent.
A research by the Home Ministry’s research and development division shows that campaign funds range from Rp 20 billion to Rp 100 billion for gubernatorial elections and from Rp 20 billion to Rp 30 billion for regent/mayoral elections.
Candidates are required to release their funds the moment they register with political parties. East Java gubernatorial candidates Saifullah Yusuf and Khofifah Indar Parawansa, for instance, need to provide between Rp 50 million and Rp 100 million to register with local party offices in Surabaya or at the central party headquarters in Jakarta. However, both have affirmed that they did not give any money specifically to gain support from party administrators.
The funds candidates will need to obtain for the 2018 regional elections, which are to be held in less than a year before the 2019 general elections, are expected to increase as the competition grows even tighter. Gerindra Party executive Ahmad Riza Patria said that his party saw this year’s regional elections as a warm-up for the 2019 campaign season. This year’s regional elections would help secure the fate of not only the candidates, but also those who wished to run in the 2019 general elections.
Lawmaker Ace Hasan Syadzily from the Golkar Party faction said that legislators who worked hard to help the party’s candidates secure a victory in their respective constituencies could expect special treatment during the 2019 general elections. This included guaranteed support for a reelection bid with higher placement on the party’s list of legislative candidates. “The presence of lawmakers is important. This is not only about their social capital and influence in their respective regions, but also about financial capital,” Ace Hasan said.
University of Indonesia political researcher Panji Anugrah said that regional election victories might not always coincide with general election victories. However, political parties that win the regional elections would enjoy a higher level of public trust in the relevant regions. The party-backed candidates who won the local election could act as vote getters in the general elections.
Such conditions could lead to political parties pouring everything they have into the regional elections. Moreover, the 2018 regional elections would be held in key electorate regions with a huge number of voters, namely West Java, Central Java and East Java. In total, the three regions contribute to 48 percent of eligible voters nationwide.
People’s awareness
Constitutional and Electoral Reform Center researcher Hadar Nafis Gumay said that the enormous campaign fund in the regional elections might lead to corruption in repaying debts, if the money was too centralized in a few political elites. On the other hand, he said, huge campaign costs and corruption cases involving regional heads should not be used to justify support for indirect regional elections (through local legislative councils).
This was because indirect elections could also lead to corruption, both in the electoral process and in local councils trying to steer the candidates’ policies once they had been elected.
Hadar said that a good solution would be for political parties to choose candidates not based on their financial capabilities, but instead on their quality. Voters also needed to be more aware about the importance of resisting money politics. “Structured and systematic monitoring is important to break the chain of money politics and huge political costs,” Hadar said.