The general election process (pemilu) in Indonesia is still treated to fraud or criminal acts committed by the participants. One form of election fraud that is often found is the practice of money politics. In some regions, this phenomenon is visible and carried out openly in plain sight, both by candidates and their success teams.
To find out and understand more about the mode of money politics in the implementation of elections, including regional head elections (pilkada), with the support of the Tifa Foundation, the Syndication of Elections and Democracy (SPD) conducted a research on the road map of money politics. The research, conducted in three provinces namely DKI Jakarta, East Java and Lampung, is a continuation of SPD's previous research with the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in 2016.
In this research, SPD focused on the middle and downstream sectors, investigating the involvement of corporations and "botoh" or gamblers in the practice of money politics, as well as the role and authority of law enforcement and other state institutions such as Bawaslu, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), and Bank Indonesia. SPD also examined the mode of money politics based on demographic and regional aspects. One of SPD's findings in this study that is quite ironic is that the community's permissiveness towards the practice of money politics has actually increased despite massive campaigns against money politics in various regions.
The research conducted by SPD in collaboration with the Tifa Foundation is a contribution from civil society so that election organizers can better understand the legal provisions available in Indonesia so that they can prevent the development of money politics practices in elections in the country.