Some legislative candidates still see money politics as the lubricant to smooth their way to the parliament, especially since the parliamentary threshold in 2019 General Elections is quite high, which is 4 percent.

One of the candidates is BSP, the incumbent from Central Java II electoral region, who ran again for the House of Representatives after serving for five years. BSP was named as corruption crime suspect for allegedly collecting illegal money to bribe voters.

To anticipate election fraud, the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) discussed the issue with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday (11/4) at KPK’s Red and White Building in Jakarta. The discussion was attended by KPK Deputy Chairs Basaria Panjaitan and Alexander Marwata, and Bawaslu Head Abhan, as well as Bawaslu Commissioners Ratna Dewi Pettalolo, Fritz Edward Siregar and Mochammad Afifuddin.

Abhan said his office currently handled 66 cases of electoral violations, 25 of which are related to money politics. 

“Of the 25 cases, 75 percent of perpetrators are legislative candidates. They handed out cash, or promised to pay for haj pilgrimage or give business capital,” he said.

Basaria Panjaitan said KPK could step into the case if the perpetrators are public officials, such as legislator BSP.

To create clean and corruption-free General Elections, KPK has created the Vote for the Honest One campaign with the activities included the ones with the General Elections Commission (KPU) and Bawaslu.

Basaria said she expected the voters, not just the elections organizers, to have integrity by choosing leaders that are honest and with integrity.

“That way, the elections will produce legislative and executive leaderships that uphold honesty and justice for the betterment of the country,” she said.

(Public Relations Bureau)