Jokowi’s presidential campaign budget 4 times Prabowo’s

Jokowi’s presidential campaign budget 4 times Prabowo’s

JAKARTA — The month-long campaign for the Indonesian presidential election on July 9 started yesterday, with frontrunner Mr Joko Widodo leading Mr Prabowo Subianto not only in opinion polls, but also in the campaign budget.

BY HERA DIANI –

JUNE 5

JAKARTA — The month-long campaign for the Indonesian presidential election on July 9 started yesterday, with frontrunner Mr Joko Widodo leading Mr Prabowo Subianto not only in opinion polls, but also in the campaign budget.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) coalition led by the popular Mr Widodo has declared to the election commission a campaign budget of 44.9 billion rupiah (S$4.76 million) — four times that of his rival’s 10 billion rupiah.

Over the next four weeks, the two candidates and their running mates will try to win over 185 million voters across 17,000 islands. With the high stakes involved, rivalry will be fierce. Both candidates have been using social media to garner support, particularly through Twitter.

In the past week, before campaigning started, allegations attacking the background, religious standing and plans of Mr Widodo and Mr Prabowo have surfaced, prompting outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to urge all parties to campaign fairly.

A newspaper has alleged that Mr Widodo was a non-Muslim with Singapore-born parents, something he refuted on Tuesday. “Near my mother’s village in Boyolali (East Java), there’s a village called Singopuran,” he said. “Maybe, they were talking about that.”

Mr Widodo also dismissed rumours that his late father, Noto Mihardjo, was a Singapore citizen. “My father came from Kragan village in central Java. His name is a provincial name; he couldn’t be from Singapore.”

Having inspired many with his clean reputation as Jakarta Governor, Mr Widodo has led former army general Mr Prabowo in opinion polls. A recent poll placed Mr Widodo and his running mate Jusuf Kalla in the lead, with the support of 35 per cent of respondents polled, though Mr Prabowo and his partner Hatta Rajasa followed closely at about 23 per cent.

This means 42 per cent of those polled are undecided and there is a chance Mr Prabowo may close the gap if he runs a strong campaign. However, he faces daunting challenges.

Mr Akbar Faisal, secretary of Mr Widodo’s campaign team, said it would spend 42 billion rupiah, or the bulk of its budget, on ads in the mass media. Indonesian law does not limit how much candidates can spend on campaigns.

Yesterday, Mr Widodo started the campaign with a ceremony at his party headquarters in Jakarta before he and Mr Kalla met a group of professionals to outline their economic platform. Mr Widodo will campaign in the easternmost province of Papua today.

Mr Prabowo and Mr Hatta are meeting religious leaders on the main island of Java today.

Both sides will be vying for the support of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah — the two largest Muslim organisations in Indonesia. Mr Adjie Alfaraby, a researcher from Indonesian Survey Circle has estimated that NU’s support could account for as much as 38 per cent of the voters in the country.