AUTOMOTIVE SPENDING FOR ELECTIONS ESTIMATED TO REACH BILLIONS

Jakarta, March 27 (ANTARA) - Political parties' automotive spending for the upcoming general elections on April 9 is predicted to reach billion rupiahs.

"We can not tell the exact value but I think two percent of elections spending will go to automotive products," the secretary general of the Association of Automotive Industries (Gaikindo), Freddy Soetrisno, said here on Thursday.
He said the automotive need of political parties was very high particularly for outside Java especially now during campaigning period.
In view of that he said he dared to predict political parties' automotive spending could reach two percent of total spending for the implementation of the general elections that reached more than Rp40 trillion.
"Indeed new political parties' cars are not remarkably seen in Jakarta because they are mostly for regions outside Java," he said.
He said the types of cars that political parties moslty preferred were multi-purpose vehicles, sport utility vehicles and two-cabin cars.
He said the two-cabin cars were the type mostly preferred outside Java.
He said political parties had already started spending money to buy cars since the end of 2008 when the price was not yet rising.
He said however he predicted automotive spending would still continue until the implementation of the presidential election in July.
"(The number could be) in hundreds, I think, but not thousands," he said when asked to mention how many cars might be sold during the period.