Jokowi-Kalla collects Rp 42 billion for campaign

JAKARTA. Both presidential candidate teams submitted their initial campaign fund reports to the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Tuesday.

The reports revealed that the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla pair had collected Rp 42 billion (US$3.53 million) in donations while the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa pair received Rp 10 billion.

“We reported the campaign fund balance up to June 3, or three days after we began receiving donations,” Jokowi-Kalla team secretary, Akbar Faisal, said as quoted by Antara news agency.

According to him, Rp 2.9 billion was obtained from public donations pooled from three bank accounts, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Central Asia (BCA) and Bank Mandiri.

The amount of money deposited in the BRI account was Rp 2.18 billion, Rp 628 million in BCA and the remainder in Bank Mandiri, Akbar added.

The money was donated by at least 5,000 people, according to campaign team head treasurer Didit Mehta Pariadi. “We haven’t received donations from any companies, just individuals,” he said.

The team refused to disclose how much had been was personally donated by Jokowi and Kalla. “We will announce that later in an official statement from the team,” Akbar said.

The Prabowo-Hatta team was more forthcoming with how much their presidential and vice-presidential hopefuls had donated. “Rp 5 billion was from the presidential candidate, Rp 4.8 billion from the vice-presidential candidate, Rp 200 million from companies and the rest from individuals,” campaign team treasurer Thomas Djiwandono said.

The KPU is now tasked with verifying the reports.

KPU legal bureau head Nur Syarifah said that if the identities of those in the donor list were hazy then the campaign teams would be approached.

Commenting on the matter, Jon Erizal, the treasurer of Hatta’s National Mandate Party (PAN), said that if there were any irregularities the Prabowo-Hatta campaign team would give the donations to
the state.

He added that the campaign team would be transparent about all its donations until the end of the campaign period.  “No matter how much money is given, we are obliged to record it along with the donor’s details,” Erizal said. The official campaign period is scheduled for June 4 until July 5.

Meanwhile, the two presidential candidates will compete in five debates, which will be scheduled between June 8 and July 5. (Hans Nicholas Jong)