Publication

This commentary discusses the campaign costs of the April 2014 parliamentary elections in Indonesia and compares them to the 2004 and 2009 elections. In doing so, it identifies a 'campaign funding trap' linked to the high costs of the country's open-list election system and the need to secure large-scale election funding by candidates. The recommended and unsurprising antidotes to this trap include setting election campaign fund limits and educating Indonesian voters about the funding problem.