Jakarta Candidates' Finance Reports to Be Audited
Jakarta. The Jakarta Election Commission, or KPUD, received required campaign finance reports from both gubernatorial candidate pairs on Sunday (16/04) ahead of the capital's runoff election later this week.
Sunday was the final day of submission for the reports, which KPUD will assess ahead of voting day on Wednesday.
The commission will partner with a private accountants office to probe whether or not the campaigns used funds lawfully.
"We would have waited until 6 p.m. [on Sunday], but the candidate pairs submitted their reports by 3 p.m. If the pairs failed to submit their reports, their candidacies might have been deemed illegitimate," KPUD commissioner Betty Epsilon Idroos said.
Incumbent pair Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama and Djarot Saiful Hidayat stated on their submitted report that they received Rp 27.8 billion ($12.79 million) of campaign funds from public donations.
Added with funds donated from the first round of the gubernatorial election, which ended on Feb. 15, the incumbent pair received nearly Rp 32.4 billion.
"We have just submitted the documents on the expenses and income for the second round of the gubernatorial campaign to KPUD Jakarta," Ahok-Djarot campaign treasurer Michael Sianipar said.
"We found that around Rp 103 million of donations we received were not included in any [fund submission] forms. We cannot verify the identity of the donors, so those funds will most likely be declared as illegitimate," Michael said. "We are handing the issue over to KPUD."
The campaign team might be instructed to return those funds to the state treasury if KPUD finds the donations unlawful.
The Ahok-Djarot campaign team spent a total of Rp 32 billion.
Meanwhile, gubernatorial candidate pair Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno spent only Rp 17.9 billion during the campaign period ahead of the second round of voting.
Most of those funds, however, came from Sandiaga's personal savings.
The official campaign period ended on April 15 and Jakarta residents will cast their final ballots on April 19.
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