December 26, 2023
JAKARTA – Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka tops the list of initial funds pooled by candidate pairs to support their election campaigns, while Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar is at the bottom, according to the latest campaign finance data released by the General Elections Commission (KPU).
The data refer to the total value of money, goods and services amassed at the beginning of the campaign season, which is reported by each candidate pair to the election organizer as required by law. The contributions to campaign funds can come from the candidates, political parties, individuals, groups and corporations.
According to the data, Prabowo raised an initial fund totaling Rp 31.4 billion (US$2 million) for his campaign, of which Rp 29.4 billion or 93.6 percent was donated by the political parties grouped in the Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), led by Prabowo’s Gerindra Party.
Prabowo and Gibran together contributed Rp 2 billion to their campaign fund.
Coming in second are Ganjar Pranowo and running mate Mahfud MD, who raised Rp 23.3 billion in initial funding.
In contrast to the Prabowo campaign, which sourced most of its funding from political parties, corporations provided the largest share of contributions to the presidential campaign of the former Central Java governor, who is backed by an electoral alliance led by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Ganjar and Mahfud together contributed Rp 100 million to their campaign.
Trailing in third is former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and his running mate Muhaimin Iskandar, who together contributed Rp 1 billion from their pockets.
The data showed that none of the political parties in the Coalition of Change for Unity (KPP), the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), donated any money to fund their candidates’ campaign.
The KPU would regularly update the campaign finance data for each candidate pair, which was subject to change through the campaign season, kompas.com reported.
Ganjar-Mahfud campaign manager Arsjad Rasjid said the pair’s campaign fund could still increase until the campaign period ended on Feb. 10, 2024.
“It’s only the beginning. And we’re doing this together, so we’re working together,” Arsjad said on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.
Even though he is trailing at the bottom in terms of funding, Anies said that he had no plans to increase his personal contribution, and that his campaign would instead focus on raising money from the public.
He expressed his confidence that donations from his supporters would help him win the election on Feb. 14, as many campaigns relied on third-party contributions.
The support from the public “makes us even more enthusiastic that this [campaign] isn’t top-down, and instead involves all people,” Anies said on Wednesday, as quoted by Antara News.
Separately, Anies’ campaign spokesman Billy David said the team’s funds would increase because KPP parties had several members with a strong business background, tempo.co reported.
The Prabowo-Gibran campaign team did not immediately respon to a request for comment from The Jakarta Post.
Under the 2017 General Elections Law, presidential and vice presidential candidates may use up to Rp 2 billion in personal funds to finance their election campaign, while corporate donations are capped at Rp 25 billion.
Meanwhile, contributions from political parties are not capped.
The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) recently found trillions of rupiah in suspicious transactions allegedly used to finance campaigns for the 2024 general election.
PPATK head Ivan Yustiavandana said the number of suspected political donations had more than doubled after the official campaign period commenced on Nov. 28. Ivan added that the center had alerted law enforcement, the KPU and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) about the transactions.
Despite mounting public pressure, the Bawaslu has decided not to investigate the suspicious transactions, claiming that it had no jurisdiction over the matter.
While making assurances that the agency would forward the PPATK’s findings to law enforcement, Bawaslu head Rahmat Bagja urged presidential campaign teams to “comply with the procedures and mechanisms for bookkeeping and reporting of campaign funds”. (alf)