Budget constraints limit presidential campaigns
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Rendi Witular, Jakarta
Budget constraints have forced all five presidential tickets to cut back on their campaign activities, forcing them to now focus their spending on getting their candidates closer to the voters.
Citing difficulties in raising enough money for the month-long campaign, the campaign teams are now concentrating on ensuring that their respective candidates meet with as many voters as possible.
"Out of our planned Rp 100 billion (US$10.75million) budget, we have only actually raised half of this. That's why we have to cut back on costs and focus our spending on introducing the candidates to the public," said Rully Chairul Azwar, a campaign manager for the Wiranto-Solahuddin Wahid ticket.
He said that most of the money came from businesspeople, with the largest donations amounting to Rp 750 million. "Four or five businesspeople give us that much," he said.
With its limited budget, he said Wiranto's team had to cut back on various expenses. Of the planned 10 different television commercials, we only made two, Rully said.
For each regency, the national team had only allocated 4,000 banners and a very limited number of posters and pamphlets, Rully said. "We cannot provide the money for dialogs as we simply don't have it," he added.
Earlier, the Megawati-Hasyim Muzadi campaign team voiced similar complaints.
Campaign organizers for the Susilo-Jusuf Kalla ticket also said that they needed to raise more funds.
"We're focusing our spending on the activities of both candidates. We have received a lot of donations from businesspeople, especially those in the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin). But we are also staging a number of fund-raising activities to support the campaign," campaign team member Rachmat Witoelar said.
He said that the team also planned to reduce costs as they expected the Susilo-Kalla ticket to get through to the runoff on Sept. 20.
Azrul Azwar, a member of the Hamzah Haz presidential campaign team, said that the donations they had received were very limited.
"We are trying to do our best using what's available. We estimated that the campaign would cost around Rp 100 billion, but so far we've managed to raise much less than this," Azrul said.
He explained that the team relied mostly on donations from its supporters rather than from the business community.
The only contented note was struck by the Amien Rais-Siswono Yudhohusodo ticket, which is backed by the National Mandate Party (PAN).
Icu Zukafril, an executive member of the campaign team, said that the team had not faced any financial difficulties thus far as it had adopted an effective fund-raising strategy.
He explained that the team had tasked various groups to hold bazaars and exhibitions, the profits from which were transferred to special campaign fund bank accounts.
"We don't rely on donations from businesspeople or institutions. We try to encourage our supporters to develop their own fund-raising schemes," said Icu.
"We estimated that we would need at least Rp 124 billion (US$13.2 million) for the campaign, and we've managed to collect that much," he said.
The team has also published the number of a special account in advertisements appealing for public donations.
The team has thus far received more than Rp 100 million in donations, and this was expected to reach Rp 1 billion by the end of the month, said Icu.