Lamongan, East Java (ANTARA News) - House of Representatives (DPR) speaker Marzuki Alie has suggested that all elections, including general elections, presidential elections, gubernatorial elections, as well as elections for district heads, mayors and village heads, should be fully funded by the state.

The House speaker made the statement here on Saturday as part of efforts to prevent corruption during the funding of direct elections.

"The political parties law hasn`t yet been designed to prevent corrupt practices, because the fund for political parties can be obtained from party dues and non-binding donations, where both

fund resources are prone to corruption," Marzuki said.

Marzuki spoke of the direct election funding problem at a seminar during the first congress of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)`s scholars association (ISNU) at the Darul Ulum Islamic University here.

The seminar also featured two other noted speakers, the Constitutional Court chairman, Prof Mahfud MD, and the Culture and Education Minister, Prof Mohammad Nuh.

Marzuki also said he believed that people in the country are unable to fund direct elections because most are poor and have little education.

Further, the House speaker said, "The non-binding donation is also unlikely to be used as the funding resource for direct elections because the funds obtained from businessmen, of course, must be returned in different forms, which should be thought over by elected businessmen."

"However, the political law still allows non-binding funding resources during the direct election, so corrupt practices will still continue to happen. That`s the condition of democracy bearing the trial and error, moreover we have experiences in undergoing liberal democracy, including the so-called guided democracy," Marzuki added.
(Uu.B003/INE/H-YH)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012