KPU Does Not Explain Campaign Funds in Detail

The Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) and Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said that the General Election Commission (KPU) was not serious about campaign finance transparency. In the Campaign and Campaign Fund Information System (Sikadeka), the KPU does not explain the Initial Campaign Fund Report (LADK) for each pair of candidates (Paslon) in detail and clearly.

“Sikadeka did not explain when the LADK for each candidate pair was submitted. Even though the time limit is very crucial in reporting campaign funds, “lateness can also result in disqualification sanctions for candidate pairs,” said Kahfi Adlan Hafiz, a researcher, at the press conference on December 20.

According to him, the KPU should display campaign fund data on the Sikadeka website in real-time according to the receipt and expenditure of campaign funds. Even though the source of campaign funds is an important thing for the public to consider in determining their choice in the 2024 election.

The size of the source of campaign fund receipts is based on the LADK report on the Sikadeka website. The Anies-Muhaimin couple reported that the initial source of campaign fund receipts was IDR 1 billion. The Prabowo-Gibran pair’s total campaign funds amounted to IDR 31,438,800,000; this amount came from the candidate pair amounting to IDR 2 billion, with the political party or coalition supporting IDR 600 million in the form of goods and IDR 28.8 billion in the form of services. Meanwhile, the total amount of Ganjar-Mahfud’s initial funds was IDR 23,375,920,999, coming from candidate pairs (IDR 100 million), political parties or combinations of parties (IDR 2.9 billion), donations from other non-government parties (IDR 20.3 billion), and individuals (IDR 1.6 million).

“There are data differences between the LADK document and the data displayed on the Sikadeka website, which is actually on the same page,” he added.

Perludem and ICW conducted an analysis of advertising spending on Meta in the last month, starting from November 16 to December 15, 2023. When compared with the findings of Eludem and ICW, each pair of presidential candidates had spent campaign advertising on Meta social media, even before campaign time. Based on these findings, the Anies-Muhaimin couple spent IDR 444,345,531 from 15 advertiser accounts, Prabowo-Gibran spent IDR 778,930,409 from 33 advertiser accounts, and Ganjar-Mahfud spent IDR 829,163,419.

“It turns out that a lot of campaign funds are outside LADK, while reporting only focuses on special campaign fund accounts,” said Kahfi.

Meanwhile, Egi Primayogha, ICW Political Corruption Division, said that information on campaign funds is a public right; therefore, detailed information regarding contributors and stages of income and expenditure of campaign funds needs to be presented more transparently. He believes that the KPU only considers campaign finance reports as a formality in the elections.

“Campaign finance transactions are important because, through them, we can see the relationship between candidates and business people.” Moreover, if the data is presented more easily to chew, it could be a consideration for the public when choosing,” said Egi.