Campaign teams poorly prepared in July5 election
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The role of a campaign team is to conduct a series of operations that are designed to bring about victory, yet, the teams of nearly all presidential candidates, particularly those of the regions, seem unprepared for the task ahead of them.
As July 5 draws closer, questions are raised as to whether candidates can engage supporters and prospective voters to take an active interest in the country's first direct presidential election.
In many areas, local campaign teams came close to missing the deadline to register with the local General Elections Commission (KPU). In Surabaya, for example, campaign teams scrambled to register with the Surabaya General Elections Commission (KPUD) by the May 26 deadline.
Only two teams registered with the Surabaya KPUD before the deadline, namely those of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Jusuf Kalla and Amien Rais-Siswono Yudohusodo. The KPUD finally extended the deadline until May 29 to allow the three other campaign teams to register. In West Sumatra, the Padang KPUD also extended its deadline to accommodate the teams of Amien Rais and Siswono Yudohusodo.
The deadlines were extended despite the central KPU's decision that teams that failed to meet the deadline would be prevented from campaigning.
"The teams failed to meet the deadline due to poor coordination between central campaign teams and their regional counterparts. For example, there are several groups claiming to be the campaign team of a presidential candidate in East Java. This makes it difficult for the central campaign team to endorse one of them as the official East Java campaign team for that candidate," said Arief Budiman, a member of East Java KPUD.
Arief said the KPUD understood the difficulties that presidential campaign teams were facing, so it had decided to be flexible.
Regional campaign teams are, apparently, also facing a shortage of funds. In West Java province, campaigning has only been underway for a week, but teams are already complaining of financial constraints.
Kurdi Moekri, the head of West Java's campaign team for Hamzah Haz-Agum Gumelar, said the team was short at least Rp 100 million to hold an outdoor rally, including the cost of hiring a stage, but they would not be able to get the money until Monday.
Due to low funding, the team has so far avoided holding mass rallies, and chosen instead to deploy members of the United Development Party (PPP), which Hamzah leads, to institutions such as Islamic boarding schools, to drum up support there.
Rudy Gunawan, the manager of the Amien-Siswono campaign team in West Java province, admitted that money was an issue, but quickly added that several businessmen in the province were ready to provide financial support. In West Java, the Megawati-Hasyim Muzadi team was reportedly suffering similar financial problems.
Rudi Harsa Tanaya, the manager of the team, said that top officials of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), had also run out of money, as it had been spent on securing legislative seats.
Similar to PPP, the PDI-P was deploying party leaders to secure support among various institutions believed to be the President's strongholds.
In Papua, only the teams of Mega-Hasyim and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Jusuf Kalla claimed to have enough money to run the campaigns that they envisioned.
Rudy Gunawan said without enough funding it was difficult to maintain the spirit of the party's core group. Also, the team could not hold functions to attract voters.
Jauhari Zailani, an observer from Bandarlampung University in Lampung, commented that money was important to activate "political machines."
Campaign funds are generally used to produce stickers, flags and T-shirts, which are distributed to supporters, and to run media campaigns. Also, vote-buying is reportedly a widespread campaign practice.