The Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) has a suspicion that some political parties have practiced money politics during their campaigns for the legislative elections on April 9.
Bawaslu has found evidence that some political parties have used money for politics besides involving children in their campaign activities.
Such practices have made the United Development Party (PPP) worry about the fairness and honesty in the upcoming legislative elections.
"We have been informed that in several regions such as Kebumen, Banjarnegara, and Purbalingga, the legislative candidates from some political parties have distributed coupons to the local people to be exchanged with money after the polling day," PPP Secretary General Romahurmuziy revealed through a press release on Wednesday.
The secretary general of PPP, a moderate Islamic political party in Indonesia, then called upon Bawaslu to have its personnel manage and prevent the practice of money politics.
He noted that lack of open campaigns with a small number of participants has indicated the existence of money politics, practiced by some legislative candidates and political parties.
"Our observation on certain political parties, which held open campaigns that were attended by many people, indicated that they were paid to participate in the campaigns," he pointed out.
Romahurmuziy added that PPP made a lot of success in conducting the open campaigns in Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Magelang, Banyumas, Banjarmasin, and Makassar.
"We also held sympathetic campaigns at several locations in Jakarta and Kebumen to build good political communication with the local community," he noted.
He pointed out that during some dialog campaigns, he had explained that money politics during the elections will only eliminate the rights of the people to vote in the elections.
In West Kalimantan, Bawaslu has requested the public not to be affected by money politics perpetrated by legislative candidates from certain political parties.
"People should not be affected by money politics during the upcoming legislative elections on April 9, because it will only be detrimental to them in the next five years," West Kalimantan Bawaslu spokesman Ruhermansyah stated on Wednesday.
He noted that the practices of money politics will tend to take place during the elections, and therefore he called upon the people to play an active role in preventing it.
"Election fraud through distribution of money to prospective voters during election campaigns and before voting day must be prevented by the people," he explained.
According to him, legislative candidates who practiced money politics during election campaigns to win the sympathy of the people will try to get their money back through corruption when they are elected to their position in parliament.
"Consequently, the legislators will misuse the development funds from the government for their personal interest," Ruhermansyah pointed out, adding that he will continue to monitor the election process in an effort to prevent money politics from happening.
Meanwhile, West Kalimantan regional coordinator for the Peoples Voter Education Network (JPPR) Ainur Hamidi has expressed his hope that the legislative elections will run fairly and honestly without money politics.
"Money politics is usually rampant during campaigns, the quiet period ahead of elections, voting day, and ballot count, and therefore people should play their role and prevent it," Ainur asserted.
Further, he called on the Election Commission (KPU) and Bawaslu to be serious in monitoring the process of elections in order to be free from money politics.
According to him, money politics is usually perpetrated by the legislative candidates with prospective voters, and with election organizers at ballot stations.
Bawaslus Chairman Muhammad recently pointed out that the agency has found evidence that some political parties used money for politics besides involving children in their campaign activities.
He explained that Bawaslus team for legal affairs was still assessing the alleged use of money for political purposes. Therefore, the team had not yet made its findings public.
"We cannot yet publicize the names of the political parties that we suspect to have practiced money politics because the findings are still being assessed by the team," Muhmmad clarified.
Bawaslus member Daniel Zuchron had previously reminded contestants of all political parties that they should not distribute money or goods to the people during their political campaign activities.
He mentioned that if they were proven to have given money to the people they would be disqualified from their membership as the electoral contestants or be disqualified from their legislature candidacy.
Money politics is one of the obstacles in the development of democracy, and therefore waging war against it is a short-, medium- and long-term challenge for Indonesia.
Money politics should not be condoned by any group of people because it is a matter of principle and it is very important that politics itself is clean from corruption.
(O001/INE/H-YH)
EDITED BY INE
(O001/KR-BSR/H-YH)
Reporter: Otniel Tamindael
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
