T

he Jakarta branch of the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu Jakarta) says that it has summoned the campaign teams of the two candidates likely heading to a runoff on Sept. 20, over the controversy surrounding allegations of money politics on election day.

Fauzi Bowo’s campaign team held a press conference on Saturday, alleging Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his running mate, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, engaged in vote-buying practices during election day on July 11.

The Fauzi-Nachrowi Ramli ticket, which was surprisingly beaten by Jokowi-Ahok by a wide margin according to various quick counts, said that it received reports that several citizens allegedly received money ranging from Rp 50,000 (US$5.3) to Rp 500,000 to cast their votes for Jokowi.

However, after receiving the report and meeting with the two camps representatives, Panwaslu Jakarta chairman Ramdansyah Bakir acknowledged that the report was lacking in tangible evidence, citing the fact that Fauzi’s campaign team could not identify citizens who received the money directly.

“The citizens only heard about such practices occurring during election day and did not receive the money directly,” Ramdansyah said on Sunday, adding that he hoped the report was not just a politically motivated attempt to undermine a specific candidate’s credibility.

He added that any report submitted to the Panwaslu must be supported by clear, tangible evidence. “There is a political atmosphere [surrounding this report],” the Panwaslu chairman said.

Meanwhile, Boy Sadikin, the head of Jokowi’s campaign team, said that his team would investigate the case further, at the same time letting the responsible officials solve the case.

“Jokowi and Basuki never instructed their campaign team or volunteers to engage in vote-buying practices. On the contrary, we intensively fought against all forms of money politics,” he said in a press release in response to the allegations.

Jokowi’s supporters must not be provoked and remain calm in responding such allegations, Boy added.

Contacted separately, Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate political observer Toto Sugiarto told The Jakarta Post that Fauzi’s campaign strategy to hold a press conference alleging Jokowi’s involvement in money politics practices could backfire. “The result shows that Jokowi is loved by many of Jakarta’s citizens. Any ‘negative campaigns’ directed against Jokowi will make the citizens more sympathetic toward him, and hate Foke [Fauzi] even more,” Toto said on Sunday.

Alleged tension became more apparent between Jokowi and Fauzi, with all Jakarta-based quick counts pointing to the likelihood that the two would square off in the election’s second round, scheduled for Sept. 20.

Prior to holding a press conference to air its vote-buying allegations, Fauzi’s camp held a press conference in the run-up to voting day to declare that several of Jokowi’s supporters had recently defected and were supporting Fauzi instead.

As voting got underway on Wednesday, Jokowi said that he tried to contact Fauzi a couple of times. The “friendship” phone calls, Jokowi claimed, were unanswered by the incumbent.

Disputing Jokowi’s claims, Fauzi said that he had never received any phone calls from the Surakarta mayor. “Does he [Jokowi] even know my phone number? I wonder if the one that he called at that time was actually the fire department,” Fauzi said at City Hall on Friday when asked by reporters why he did not answer Jokowi’s phone calls. (cor/sat)