And so it begins . . .

From a Jakarta colleague:

“The campaign season is starting this week and not really forward to it. It is the season for false hopes and promises.

“I don't think the country will change from its chronic disease of corruption and the deteriorating conditions of the country's motto - unity and diversity - by electing a new president and a new ruling party.”

Sad but probably true.

Vote buying detected during campaigns

The Jakarta Post, Tue, March 18 2014

The Election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) says that it has found indications of vote buying involving various political parties during the first two days of the 2014 legislative election campaign period.

However, Bawaslu chairman Muhammad declined to name the political parties concerned.

“Bawaslu has found indications of vote buying but we cannot yet publicize them. They are still being examined,” he said in Jakarta on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

According to Muhammad, the parties conducted the vote buying in a variety of ways, one of which was by distributing so-called transportation payments.

[snip]

Vote buying is prohibited, according to the Law No. 8/2012 on elections. [Amazing!] The General Elections Commission (KPU) can remove Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), House of Representatives (DPR) or Regional Representatives Council (DPD) candidates from final candidate lists and/or cancel decrees on their selection as members of the councils.

Muhammad said vote buying was among several election violations, including the involvement of children in campaign activities, detected during the legislative campaign period.

*****

Here’s an election timeline cheat sheet, for those of you who don’t want to miss a minute of it:

April 9: Legislative Elections

Simultaneous national elections for the national parliament (DPR, 560 seats), 33 provincial assemblies (DPRD I: 2,137 seats) and 497 district (kabupaten and kota) assemblies (DPRD II: 17,560 seats)

May and June: Campaigning

July 9: Presidential elections, first round

September: Presidential elections, second round (if necessary)

October 20: Inauguration

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono completes his term and the seventh president takes office

Legislative elections in Indonesia: April 2014
Level	Institution	Seats contested
National	People's Representative Council Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR)	560
National	Regional Representative Council Dewan Perwakilan Daerah (DPD)	132
Provincial Propinsi	Regional House of Representatives Level I Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah I (DPRD I)	2,137
Regency/District Kabupaten/Kota Madya	Regional House of Representative Level II Dewan Perwakilian Rakyat Daerah II (DPRD II)	17,560
	Total	20,389

And finally, a squeak from the Prabowo camp:

The Jakarta Post, March 15 2014

 Gerindra Party chairman Suhardi said his party still believed in its presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto despite the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) decision to name popular Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo as its candidate.

“The Jokowi candidacy doesn't bother us as we still have confidence  in our own candidate. We believe that Prabowo has won the people’s heart,” Suhardi said as quoted by tempo.co on Saturday.

Comments from readers:

Comment: : Jokowi’s musyawarah  (discourse) style? I’d prefer a strong President with a vision.

Reply: Like Robert Mugabe, or Yahya Khan. Or maybe Stalin?