Hamzah's misses two campaigns in Jakarta
Hamzah's misses two campaigns in Jakarta
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta
Presidential candidates need every opportunity to promote
themselves and win voters. But with campaigning following so
close on the heels of that for the legislative election, their
strategists are seeking to manage resources as best they can.
In the case of Hamzah Haz and running mate Gen. (ret) Agum
Gumelar, this has meant skipping two indoor campaign meetings
scheduled by the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD
Jakarta). Campaign teams for four other candidates have so far
used all opportunities as scheduled by the KPUD.
In hoping for a more cost-efficient campaign method, Hamzah's
Jakarta team simply distributed posters on Monday to motorists at
the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.
In South and North Jakarta they also distributed drinking
water; it is not clear yet whether the Jakarta Election
Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu Jakarta) will categorize these
"sympathetic" campaigns as vote buying.
Chairman of the South Jakarta campaign team for Hamzah-Agum,
Musanif, said Monday's campaign involved only 10 team members
distributing 25 boxes of water and 500 posters to bus drivers.
One box of water costs only about Rp 15,000 (US$1.63).
On June 6, the teams in the five municipalities also passed up
an opportunity to campaign in the city. They argued that they
were focusing their attention on preparations for an open-door
campaign in the former Kemayoran airport on June 8, which Hamzah
and Agum did attend.
Chairman of the Central Jakarta team, Zakaria Rachmad, said
chairman of the Jakarta provincial team Ahmad Suaidy had told
them that there were no funds for municipality-level campaigns.
Suaidy merely said that money would be spent only where
necessary, and that "sympathetic campaigns" were more efficient.
He denied that his team had encountered difficulties in
mobilizing mass support for such campaigns, saying that the
United Development Party (PPP), chaired by Hamzah, had a large
number of members that could be deployed at any campaign event.
KPUD Jakarta and the teams of the five pairs of candidates
arranged jointly the schedule for campaigning in the city. Each
pair has five indoor campaign opportunities at the municipal
level and one outdoor campaign at the provincial level.
The commission has prepared campaign venues in all five
municipalities and in Thousand Islands regency for dialog
campaigns. It has also prepared the Bung Karno Sports Complex and
the former Kemayoran airport for outdoor campaign rallies.