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Wednesday, 18 June 2008

JAKARTA (SINDO) – Special committee for Presidential Election Draft Bill (RUU Pilpres) proposed that the Constitutional Court should be able to annul a president-vice president pair proven to break the rule on campaign fund without having to wait for the trial.

The Head of Special Committee for the Presidential Election Draft Bill, Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, said that the Constitutional Court could use the audit result from independent auditors appointed by the General Election Commission. According to Ferry, if the result of the audit showed the indication of violation, an action could be taken.

”(We) do not have to wait for the trial, if it is about the flow of the fund it is enough from the auditor. When audited, all sources of income can be seen. If a candidate can not explain the identity of the donor, then it is a violation,” he said during the House’s assembly meeting yesterday.

The Politician from Golkar Party added that principally, his party tried to avoid the money laundering practices in the Presidential campaign. Because of that, the task of the auditor was to examine whether or not the campaign fund of the presidential candidate pair came from illegal activities, for example, corruption fund, drugs, or gambling.

Even though so, continued Ferry, kinds of sanction to be applied might be varied. It ranged from the campaign ban, impeding the candidate, also annulment of the elected President Candidate. According to him, the implementation of the sanction would be adjusted to the level of the violation that could be determined by the auditor.

Concerning who would be the replacement if the chosen president candidate was annulled, according to the Vice Head of Legislation Board (Baleg) of the House of Representatives, the second place candidate had the right to be elected. Was it not that the 1945 Constitution stated that the elected president candidate had to attain 50% plus one of all voters with at least 20% of votes in provinces of ½ of the total number of provinces in Indonesia? Ferry agreed.

Meanwhile, member of the special committee from the Nation Awakening Fraction (FKB), Abdullah Azwar Anas, said that the criteria for the auditiong of the campaign fund had to be clear. For example, when the donation for the campaign could be received.

”Because of that, the Fraction suggested that in the recess period, the donation for campaign fund should be received,” he explained SINDO yesterday. In a separate place, the Election Watcher Board (Bawaslu) would still wait for the content of the Act related to the rule of campaign fund usage. The content of the Act on Presidential Election would gave an impact to the monitoring mechanism on the presidential campaign fund.

”We have not decided what kind of regulation we will make. So, we are still waiting for the content of the Act on Presidential Election,” emphasized the Member of the Election Watcher Board, Wahidah Suaib, in her office yesterday. Wahidah emphasized that monitoring the campaign fund would not be easy, moreover if it was related to where the money came from. To measure whether the fund was legal or not was very difficult to be observed. To make the monitoring task easier, said Wahidah, it would be better to set a rule similar to the rule in the last election. (ahmad baidowi/sofian dwi/pasti liberti mappapa)

Source: http://www.seputar-indonesia.com/edisicetak/nasional/mk-bisa-langsung-anulir-capres-2.html

Photo: Doc. Of Constitutional Court Public Relation

Translated by Yogi Djatnika (MKRI)

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