SP/Carlos Paath – Candidates running in Indonesia's legislative elections must be prepared to spend at least Rp 1 billion ($103,000), a legislator said on Tuesday.

"The internal and external competition for the 2014 election will be tighter than in 2009 and the campaign period is longer, whether they like it or the legislative candidates will have to dig in their pockets deeper," Priyo Budi Santoso, the House of Representatives deputy speaker, told Indonesian news agency Antara on Tuesday.

Priyo said serious candidates would have to spend at least Rp 1 billion if they wanted to run in the election, as they would need sufficient capital to operate a successful team and to pay for their campaign. The senior Golkar Party member added that a candidate would also have to spend money to visit their constituent base at least twice a month ahead of the election.

"Three months before the election they will to spend more money on logistics like T-shirts, banners, calendars, billboards and advertisements," Priyo explained, adding that candidates would also have to pay for witnesses at each polling station.

Martin Hutabarat, a legislator from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), said that during the 2009 elections he had to spend Rp 1.5 billion for his campaign.

He said that most of the money was spent on paying witnesses at polling stations. Martin said he had not calculated how much he would allocate this year as Gerindra had enforced a regulation that witness fees would be the party's responsibility.

Martin said Gerindra had prepared 1.2 million witnesses across the country to watch the election.

"Our witnesses are well trained and most of them are still young," he said.