Waiting For Honesty In The 2024 Presidential Election Campaign Fund Report

Illustration Of Images By Ilham Andri Winarko VOI

JAKARTA Without feeling the Indonesian people will again carry out the biggest democratic party in the country. In the next three months, February 14, 2024, the 2024 legislative and presidential elections (Pilpres) will be held simultaneously.

Speaking of elections, both legislative and presidential, one of the topics in the spotlight is the issue of campaign funds. Especially when it comes to the struggle for the presidency of the Republic of Indonesia in 2024.

So, how much money does a person need to run as a presidential candidate in this republic? Deputy Chairperson of the Gelora Party, Fahri Hamzah revealed the estimated mininal capital needed to become president in Indonesia.

Before mentioning the nominal in the presidential election, Fahri first revealed the capital to compete in the legislative elections. He revealed that if someone intends to become a candidate for DPR RI member, a capital is needed in the range of IDR 5 billion to IDR 15 billion.

"Of course there are rich people who think he doesn't need to go to his electoral district, he just sends logistics trucks, he sends money, he sends all kinds of things, and this person in the DPR never talks, never expresses his opinion, but every October 20 per five years he is inducted. Why? Because the money is really a lot of people," he said, Sunday, November 12.

The deputy chairman of the House of Representatives for the 2014-2019 period assessed that the amount of funds needed to participate in elections should be a warning to all stakeholders. This is because every election implementation is only logistics politics, not ideas politics.

"But if the presidential election is crazier in my opinion. In Indonesia, if people don't have Rp5 trillion in cash, they can't run for president. Realized or not," said Fahri.

He gave an example of a busy incident some time ago related to the 2017 DKI Jakarta Pilkada. At that time, continued Fahri, there was a candidate for governor who signed a loan behind the scenes of up to tens of billions. What about the Republic of Indonesia? I think IDR 5 trillion. That's minimal," he added.

Ridwan Kamil has also raised the high cost of becoming a presidential candidate. The former Governor of West Java, who was predicted to be a vice presidential candidate in 2024, said that the cost of becoming a presidential candidate reached trillions.

"Well, I learned from the two regional elections as a bride in the regional election that to advance to become a leader in Indonesia, the requirements include electability and preference, there are logistics. What I hear is that it is expensive up to trillions. Even according to research that I know, to become president requires Rp. 8 trillion," said RK.

However, the high cost of advancing in the presidential election was denied by Mahfud MD. According to Ganjar Pranowo's future vice presidential candidate, information on the advance costs of the presidential election of up to trillions is just a rumor. Because, from his experience as a companion to Ganjar, he was not set at a certain cost of up to trillions.

"Maybe you don't believe it, but to be honest, I didn't come out for a penny and weren't asked to spend a penny," said Mahfud.

When viewed from the State Official Wealth Report (LHKPN) of the three presidential candidates in 2024, Prabowo Subianto is listed as the candidate with the largest wealth. In LHKPN, Prabowo's wealth reached Rp2.04 steplion. In second place is Ganjar Pranowo's name, which in LHKPN is recorded to have a wealth of Rp. 13.45 billion. Meanwhile, Anies Baswedan is a presidential candidate with the least wealth in LHKPN, which is Rp. 11.9 billion.

Meanwhile, when confirmed by VOI, Saturday, November 11, regarding the amount of funds needed in the 2024 presidential election, several political party elites in each candidate pair still seem closed and reluctant to reveal the estimated costs needed. This is because they are still calculating the necessary costs with the sources of funds that enter before they are reported to the General Election Commission.

A VOI source at the Forward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) carrying the Prabowo and Gibran pair revealed that the estimated costs needed by Prabowo-Gibran may range from hundreds of billions.

Mr. Prabowo has also had experience running in the presidential election twice. Maybe the costs required are not far forward in 2014 and 2019. If the source of the funds is from the joint venture of the supporting political parties and donations," said the source.

From VOI data, in the 2014 presidential election, Prabowo, who was paired with Hatta Rajasa, reported that the campaign funds used amounted to Rp166.56 billion. Meanwhile, in the 2019 presidential election when paired with Sandiaga Uno, the pair's campaign funds reached Rp213.2 billion.

VOI sources in the ranks of Ganjar and Mahfud MD dismissed the campaign costs of trillions of rupiah. Although reluctant to mention the exact figure, he estimates the costs required during the campaign could reach tens or even hundreds of billions.

The biggest need other than props is of course on the safari or the candidate pair roadshow. Especially if the situation is like now, where the US dollar currency is strong, the aviation fuel price is high. Of course this has an impact on the price of airplane tickets or if you want to rent your own plane," explained the VOI source.

Similar to the Prabowo-Gibran camp, the source of campaign funds needed by the Ganjar-Mahfud pair also came from joint ventures of political parties carrying and donations from other parties. "Of course from there (participation and donations). As long as it does not violate the stipulated regulations," he added.

Then, what are the contestants' steps to address the amount of campaign funds needed? Will the presidential candidate from the Change Coalition for Unity, Anies Baswedan, encourage fundraising for campaign capital to be carried out at the volunteer level.

However, the money collected was not to cover the campaign funds for the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar pair in the 2024 presidential election, but to return it to volunteers to carry out activities to win the presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta also admitted that his party was also given a lot of assistance, even though it was not in the form of money. He gave an example, his party was lent an office, operational car, to staff salaries at the secretariat by people or companies who helped.

Anies also admitted that the highest budget would come out ahead of campaign activities. To get around the campaign props, his team will provide campaign content so that the public and volunteers can print for themselves.

"We don't print, we provide the content, and we ask everyone, if you believe in what we are doing and plan to do, help us make changes in this country. Because it is impossible for us to do it alone," he explained at the event 3 of the Presidential Candidate to Talk Ideas at Grha Saba Pramana, Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Yogyakarta, last Tuesday, September 19.

Meanwhile, Ganjar Pranowo stated that he did not think too much about campaign funds in the 2024 presidential election because it was part of the task of political parties. He believes that related to the campaign funds, the political parties that carry him have prepared through mutual financing.

He added, to cover the large cost of the campaign, of course there will be fundraising and donations. According to him, fundraising or donation models can vary. For example, through applications that can communicate with the community, and also open donations to sell souvenirs.

"This donation can be done openly, the important thing is transparent. It can be accountable and can be held accountable," said Ganjar.

Prabowo Subianto admitted that his experience twice competing in the presidential election allowed him to calculate how much it would cost for the campaign. He revealed that in the 2024 presidential election, he did not make him sell personal assets for capital to advance in the presidential election.

"Now my party is the one who finances me a lot. If I call my members, they pay for it themselves. If the party is enthusiastic about idealism, he will pay for it himself. Self-financing is already running," he said.

However, Prabowo still admits that the cost of the campaign in the presidential election is very expensive. Therefore, there needs to be a breakthrough as a way out of high political costs in elections and presidential elections. It has to be there, how can political costs be made low," he added.

On the other hand, the Executive Director of Needdem, Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati, confirmed that the cost of contesting the presidential election was expensive. Unfortunately, the real expenditure is often different from what each candidate reports to the KPU.

He emphasized that the function of the campaign fund report to the KPU should show real data, especially in the details of the expenditure and income of each candidate pair.

The question is whether the campaign fund report really reflects the reality? Is the details really that detailed? Then, other funding sources are also included in the campaign fund report or not? "said Ninis, Khoirunnisa's nickname, Sunday 12 November.

Needdem, he said, had proposed limiting expenditures for candidates. This is because this can be an option to limit the high costs required in the presidential election. Moreover, the current rules only regulate restrictions related to donations to candidates.

"The current limitation is only in terms of donations. What has no limit is the expenditure. So people go out in crowds, a lot of money comes out, because the assumption was that a lot of money came out, they could win," he explained.

Ninis also encourages election organizers to audit expenditure and income funds, so that the reports of funds prepared by the presidential candidates can be fully accounted for.

"It can be driven by transparency of the reported campaign funds. The funds do not reflect the real thing. Even if there is an audit, it is not investigative, only about compliance with the law," he said regarding the honesty of the campaign fund report in the 2024 presidential election.