Improvement through Election Law Revision

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Residents ride their motorcycles in front of billboards for the 2020 regional election (Pilkada) of Depok city, West Java, near the General Elections Commission (KPU) office of Depok city, Friday (6/11/2020). The 2020 simultaneous Pilkada will be held in 270 regions, consisting of nine provinces, 224 regencies and 37 cities by taking into account the Covid-19 prevention health protocol. The campaign period takes place for 71 days, starting from 26 September to 5 December 2020. Meanwhile, the 2020 Pilkada voting day is planned to be held simultaneously on 9 December.

Strengthening the monitoring of campaign funds could be done by revising the Election Law. However, this requires a strong commitment from the House of Representatives and the government so that the revision does not stop halfway.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Revising the Election Law could serve as an entry point to strengthen regulation on monitoring campaign finance reports and improve their transparency and accuracy. Regardless, a strong commitment to aptly formulate the revision is required to ensure that the plan to make campaign finance reports more stringent is realized.

Amid preparations for the 2020 regional elections, calls for enhancing the monitoring of campaign finance reports through investigative audits, among others, emerge. The monitoring mechanism has been scrutinized following the detection of issues surrounding the accuracy of the initial reports of campaign funds (LADK) and the incoming campaign donation reports (LPSDK). There are reportedly 35 candidate pairs, or approximately 4.7 percent of the total number of candidate pairs in the 2020 regional elections, who reported that they had received zero campaign funds. Similar issues also emerged during the 2015, 2017 and 2018 regional elections.

Also read: Stronger Rules for Campaign Fund Reporting Needed

Law No. 10/2016 on elections stipulates that audits of reports on the revenue and expenditure of candidates’ campaign funds are carried out by a public accounting firm appointed by the regional branches of the General Elections Commission (KPU). However, the nature of the audits is limited to checking candidates’ compliance in regard to submitting campaign finance reports as stipulated in the law. A new proposal suggests that the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) carries out investigative audits to ensure that the content of the campaign finance reports reflect the real conditions on the ground.

Kompas/Hendra A Setyawan

Campaign billboards of candidates for mayor and deputy mayor are installed in Situ Tujuh Muara, Depok, West Java, Monday (9/11/2020). Two pairs of candidates will compete in the regional elections in Depok on 9 December 2020.

Chairman of House Commission II, Ahmad Doli Kurnia Tandjung, said on Friday (13/11/2020) that the proposal for Bawaslu to perform investigative audits would be discussed during the House’s deliberation of the Election Law revision.

The revision draft of the Election Law is still being harmonized by the House’s Legislation Body (Baleg). Commission II will ask for an official explanation from Baleg regarding the revised draft next Monday.

Also read: The Regional Elections and ‘Cukongkrasi’

According to Doli,the revision of the Election Law encompasses the evaluation of mandates, tasks and functions of poll organizers, namely the Bawaslu, the KPU and the Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP).

“Pertaining to campaign funds, who would receive such responsibility (carrying out investigative audits) will be further discussed. We also encourage the establishment of a special court for electoral matters in the revision of the Election Law. The existence of this special court would change the mandates, tasks and functions of all poll organizers,” explained Doli.

Doli promised that the regulation concerning campaign finance reports would also be evaluated so that in the future, candidates of regional elections, legislative elections and presidential elections could report their campaign funds in a more honest and responsible way.

Responding to this issue, Association for Elections and Democracy executive director Khoirunnisa “Ninis” Nur Agustyati said the proposal for strengthening the regulation on campaign finance reports had long been made. Ninis added that there was even a suggestion to reformulate the Bawaslu into a special agency which oversaw campaign finance reports. “However, the suggestion disappeared without any follow-up actions. A similar suggestion had also been made during the last revision of the Election Law [into the Law No. 7/2017],” said Ninis.

Also read: Bribe Money for Local Elections

Based on the previous experience of revising the Election Law, according to Ninis, the electoral system often became a central point in the deliberation process. “Consequently, other important issues were not thoroughly discussed. If I’m not mistaken, the deliberation process of the last Election Law revision took six months, and the discussion on the electoral system alone was almost three months long,” said Ninis.

Reinforcing Bawaslu’s role could also prevent electoral candidates from acquiring illegal funds.

Because of this, Ninis asserted that the public must safeguard the House’s promise to strengthen the regulation so that it would not stop halfway again. Enhancing the regulation is an important aspect in the efforts to improve the transparency of campaign funds. Reinforcing Bawaslu’s role could also prevent electoral candidates from acquiring illegal funds.

“Strong monitoring is a must so that the objective could be realized in the new Election Law and Bawaslu’s performance could be more effective,” said Ninis.

More substantive

In several regions, poll organizers have lamented their limited authority regarding campaign finance reports. Central Kalimantan Bawaslu head Satriadi said the organization only exercised limited authority in regard to candidates’ campaign funds.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Commissioner of the General Elections Commission (KPU) Evi Novida Ginting Manik (from left to right), Chairman of the KPU Arief Budiman and Director General of Regional Autonomy of the Home Ministry, Akmal Malik, attend a hearing meeting with Commission II of the House of Representatives (DPR) at the DPR building, Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday (12/11/2020). The meeting discussed the draft of KPU regulations (PKPU) related to voting and counting of the votes, recapitulation and determination of election results at the 2020 simultaneous regional elections. On that occasion the KPU proposed the use of information technology in carrying out the recapitulation process because it was considered more effective and efficient.

Meanwhile, according to Faisal Riza, a member of West Kalimantan Bawaslu, serious action and political willingness are required to amend the prevailing regulation. A regulation that governs substantive matters is needed. “Substantive matters include whether or not the reported campaign funds reflect the real condition on the ground. The existing regulation does not encompass this,” said Faisal.

House Commission II deputy chairman Arwani Thomafi said in the future, campaign finance reports must put more emphasis on transparency and accountability rather than merely on funding restrictions. By doing this, campaign finance reports could be more honest and boost transparency in the public realm.

Regarding investigative audits campaign finance reports, it is argued that the audits must be carried out by law enforcement bodies which have the competence to oversee financial transactions.

Bawaslu head Abhan agreed that bequeathing Bawaslu an additional responsibility must be accompanied by strengthening Bawaslu’s human resource capacity. In principle, Abhan said he was ready to assume the investigative responsibility.

The collaboration between the two institutions centered on monitoring the incoming funds in electoral candidate pairs’ personal bank accounts.

Meanwhile, Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) chairman Dian Ediana Rae said the PPATK had worked together with Bawaslu pertaining to the monitoring of campaign funds. The collaboration between the two institutions centered on monitoring the incoming funds in electoral candidate pairs’ personal bank accounts. Receipts and transactions in the personal bank accounts will then be compared with receipts and transactions in the candidates’ campaign bank accounts. If the amount received in personal accounts is far different from the amount received in campaign bank accounts, manipulation of campaign funds might be suspected.

Also read: Corruption in the Midst of Coronavirus

Regarding the 2020 Regional Elections, to date, Dian reported that the PPATK had yet to detect any suspicious transactions in candidates’ bank accounts. “We are still conducting monitoring and analysis. We will submit the report of our work to the Bawaslu or other law enforcement bodies, depending on the type of crime detected,” explained Dian.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

A motorcyclist rides in front of the campaign billboards of the candidate pairs for mayor and deputy mayor of South Tangerang on Jalan Tekno Widya, South Tangerang, Friday (13/11/2020). The campaign period will take place until 5 December; the quiet period on 6-8 December, while voting will be on 9 December 2020.

Looking at the PPATK’s findings in previous regional elections, Dian said candidates’ special campaign fund accounts (RKDK) did not always reflect candidates’ true financial strength. The PPATK has found that a lot of campaign financing comes from other sources outside of the RKDK. (BOW/REK/CIP/JUM/ESA/IKI/IDO)