The Golkar party has been alleged to have committed the highest number of cases involving money politics during the political campaign period ahead of the April 9 parliamentary election, the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said.

“Golkar recorded 23 cases of money politics during the week-long campaign ending Saturday,” an ICW analyst, Abdullah Dahlan told reporters in Jakarta yesterday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Abdullah said all political parties committed money politics, which was not allowed by the election regulations.

The second largest number of money politic cases was committed by the National Mandate Party (PAN) with 19 cases, followed by the ruling Democratic Party (17), Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (13) and the United Development Party (12).

The highest number of illegal practices were committed by legislative candidates with cases including money politics, abuse of power and illegal use of state facilities.

The second highest number of cases, 49, was committed by success teams (small teams to mobilise support), followed by government officials with 16 cases, political parties and campaign teams with three cases.

Under an open system, candidates and success teams are more likely to commit money politics but it would be difficult for political parties, added Abdullah.

Most of the cases were committed in Riau (32 cases), North Sumatra (18), Banten (16), North Sulawesi (14) and West Java 12 cases.

- Bernama