Campaign Funds Transparency

KOMPAS/DIDIE SW

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The minimalist approach formulates democracy in simple terms, that is, contestation and participation in the process of electing state administrators to political office.

General election participants compete (contestation) to gain voter confidence (votes), and the voters exercise their voting right (participation) to determine who are elected as state administrators to political office.

Indonesia’s General Elections Law contains four types of electoral participants: political parties in the election of legislators to the House of Representatives (DPR) and Provincial/City Legislative Councils (DPRDs); candidates for president and vice president nominated by political parties or party coalitions in the presidential election; regional heads and their deputies nominated by political parties, party coalitions or individuals in the election of governors, regents and mayors; and individuals in the election of members to the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).

Transparent funding

The purpose of the candidates is to be elected as a state administrator to one or more of the following six political offices: the House/DPR, the DPD, provincial DPRDs, regency/municipal DPRDs, president/vice president, or regional heads/deputy heads. Each electoral participant or candidate has rights and obligations as regulated in the laws and regulations on the general elections. There are at least eight rights they can exercise.

First, in the election of DPR and DPRD members, the political parties participating in the general elections are entitled to submit a list of candidates for the DPR and a list of candidates for the DPRD in each electoral district.

Second, political parties are entitled to contest freely and fairly against other parties through a variety of election campaign methods. Because these electoral participants are competing for fewer positions compared to the number of contesting candidates, the competition will undoubtedly be very tight. Therefore, competing through election campaigns should not only be free and fair, but must also be in accordance with legislation.

Third, to ensure fair competition, electoral participants are also entitled to facilities in the form of campaign tools and campaign broadcast advertisement from the General Elections Commission/KPU (from the State Budget/Regional Budget).

Fourth, electoral participants are entitled to report allegations of electoral violations to law enforcement agencies. Fifth, they are entitled to file lawsuits with the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) if they object to the KPU\'s decision.

Sixth, they can send witnesses to observe the balloting and ballot counting process at the polling stations (TPS) and may recapitulate the vote count at all levels. Seventh, through their witnesses, the electoral participants have the right to file an objection with the general election organizers at all levels if they find any irregularities in the implementation at each stage of the election. And eighth, they are entitled to submit a petition to the Constitutional Court to annul the KPU\'s election results.

Each electoral participant also has a number of obligations they must consistently fulfill. These obligations deal with engaging in the contestation through campaigning in various forms and methods in keeping with the laws and regulations on the general elections. These laws mention at least eight obligations for electoral participants.

First, electoral participants must abide by all restrictions as set in legislation, because the restrictions aim not only to ensure that the contestation among electoral participants takes place in an orderly and safe manner, but also that it takes place freely and fairly. One of the restrictions deals with campaign funding sources. All electoral participants are prohibited from receiving campaign donations from foreign parties, unidentified or anonymous contributors, proven criminal funds based on permanent court verdicts, the government or state-owned enterprises (SOEs), local administrations and local SOEs, as well as village administrations and village-owned entities.

Second, electoral participants have an obligation to formulate the vision, mission and programs as campaign materials. In addition to the responsibilities of each electoral participant, the law also commissions the KPU to disseminate the vision, mission and programs of each electoral participant. Because DPR and DPRD candidates are more actively involved in campaigning than their parties, the General Elections Law requires these candidates to use the party’s vision, mission and programs in their campaigns. Third, they must submit a list of campaign organizers and teams to the KPU, the provincial KPU and the regency/municipal KPU, with copies submitted to the Bawaslu, provincial Bawaslu and regency/city Bawaslu.

Fourth, the must maintain a specific bookkeeping and open a special account for campaign funds at a bank. Each campaign donation received in the form of compulsory money (a) is to be recorded in the campaign funds books and (b) placed in the special campaign fund account. Any campaign fund donated in the form of goods and/or services must be recorded in a special campaign fund book that is separate from the financial accounts of the electoral participants.

Fifth, the identity of each contributor must be recorded in detail with regard to the name, occupation, address and contactable telephone number, along with the donation’s amount. Sixth, donations from prohibited sources should not be accepted. Such donations must be reported to the KPU and handed over to the state treasury no later than 14 days after the end of the campaign period.

Seventh, initial reports of campaign funds and special campaign fund accounts must be submitted by: (a) candidate pairs to the KPU no later than 14 days after they have been elected; (b) participating political parties to the KPU, provincial KPU and regency/municipal KPU no less than 14 days prior to the general meeting on the first day of the campaign schedule; and (c) DPD candidates to the KPU no less than 14 days prior to the general meeting on the first day of the campaign schedule.

Eighth, reports on the receipt and expenditure of campaign funds must be submitted to the KPU-appointed public accounting firm (KAP) no later than 15 days following the ballot. The KPU, provincial KPU, and regency/municipal KPU must publicly announce the audit results of all campaign funds no less than 10 days after the KAP’s audit report is received.

Most of the obligations related to campaign funds aim to ensure the transparency of campaign funds. The question is, what is the purpose of the transparency in campaign revenues and expenditures?

As noted at the beginning of this article, democracy is the competition/contestation among electoral participants to gain the confidence/votes of voters, because it is the voters that determine the winner of the contest. Therefore, the main and priority objective of transparency in revenue sources and the kinds of campaign expenditures is to enable the people to exercise their right to vote based on complete and accurate information (intelligent voting) on contestants in the general elections.

What the KPU will announce to the public is the results of an audit the KAP has conducted. What the KAP audits are not just the final reports on campaign revenues and expenditures from each electoral participant, but also their books on the campaign funds and the special campaign fund accounts. If the transparency of donation sources and expenditure patterns of campaign funds are realized in accordance with the applicable regulations, the voters will know not only who contributed and how much they contributed to the electoral participants, but also who were the biggest contributors to the electoral participants’ campaign funds.

If the main contributors to the campaign funds of certain electoral participants are one or two individuals, groups or businesses, smart voters will deduce: If I vote for a certain electoral participant, then after they are elected, their primary agenda would not be to fight for their constituents’ aspirations, but to meet the demands from their main contributors.

Obstacles to transparency

A number of obstacles prevent achieving the objectives of campaign fund transparency.

First, the electoral participants do not record all receipts and expenditures in their books, either intentionally or unintentionally. It is intentional when, for practical reasons, electoral participants ask certain employers or individuals to finance those campaign activities that require large funds. These funds are not handed over to the treasurer and therefore, they are not recorded in the books. Electoral participants then run the campaign activity, but the revenues and expenses are not recorded. It is unintentional when, because they are not yet accustomed to or are undisciplined, the electoral participants do not record every receipt and expenditure in the books.

Second, as electoral participants in the DPR and DPRD contest, it is the political parties that must guarantee the transparency of campaign funds. However, since the elected candidates have been determined by majority vote, DPR and DPRD legislative candidates (individuals) are more actively involved in campaigning than the political parties (institutions). Therefore, it is unsurprising that the candidates seek and utilize the campaign funds. Consequently, the parties do not report much of the campaign funds the candidates have received.

Third, the law requires electoral participants to place each monetary donation in a special account for campaign funds. This obligation is not accompanied by sanctions for violators. As a result, the special account only contains the initial funds for opening the account. These special campaign funds accounts fail to guarantee the transparency of any transactions the electoral participants conduct.

Fourth, the law does not authorize the KPU to investigate allegations that electoral participants have not reported their campaign donations. The KPU may be aware that certain electoral participants have not reported certain donations or expenditures, but it does not have the authority to examine and investigate them. Consequently, full and accurate transparency in the funding sources and expenditures cannot be guaranteed.

Kompas/Arbain Rambey

Ramlan Surbakti

And lastly and most importantly, the voters are not made aware of each electoral participant’s sources of campaign revenues and expenditures prior to voting day. This is because the law requires electoral participants to submit receipt and expenditure reports on campaign funds to the KPU-appointed KAP no later than 15 days after voting day. The KAP must submit its audit results to the KPU no later than 30 days after receiving the electoral participants submit their reports. Therefore, the KPU may be able to publicly announce the results of the KAP audit on campaign funds about 50 days after voting day.

In other words, the laws and regulations made by the DPR and the government (which are none other than the electoral participants) do not guarantee the transparency of campaign funds. Electoral participants have enjoyed some of their rights to free and fair competition, but they intentionally or unintentionally fail to perform their duties to the electorate. Consequently, the purpose of campaign funds transparency, i.e. the electorate casting their votes based on complete and accurate information on sources of campaign revenues and expenditures (intelligent voting), will inevitably be unmet.

Ramlan Surbakti, Comparative Politics professor, School of Social and Political Sciences, Airlangga University; Indonesian Academy of Sciences member