Yudhoyono Violates No Elections Campaign Rules

Jakarta, April 8 (Antara) - The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) stated that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono did not violate campaign rules in using state facilities during campaigning for the ruling Democratic Party. "Based on a number of our examinations, we did not find enough evidence to confirm the allegation that the use of state facilities by Yudhoyono was a violation," Bawaslu member Nelson Simanjuntak declared here on Tuesday. As the General Chairman of the Democratic Party, Yudhoyono was not proven to have violated the elections rules, both in terms of administrative and criminal violations, in the use of state facilities during the 2014 general elections campaign in Lampung and in Palembang (South Sumatra). The legal team of Bawaslu had earlier visited State Secretariat and the Central Executive Board of the Democratic Party to study the regulations on state facilities for the president. The Bawaslu also involved the National Police and the Prosecutor`s Office, which were grouped in the Integrated Law Enforcement Center in carrying out the studies. Earlier, Bawaslu had received reports from a number of non-governmental organizations, election monitoring and supervisory organizations on the use of state facilities by Yudhoyono. According to Bawaslu, the State Secretariat has explained about the state facilities, which were inherent with Yudhoyono in his capacity as the president based on Law No.7/1978 on the President`s and Vice President`s Administrative and Financial Rights, and on the Government Regulation No. 59/2013 on the Pacification of the President and the Vice President and their family members as well as state guests of state head level. "According to the State Secretariat, before holding a campaign, Yudhoyono had asked that the management should be separated between things which are related to pacification, protocol and health rights as well as things which are of personal interest in the campaign so that there would be no misuse of state money," Nelson explained.