Campaign teams poorly prepared in July5 election

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.