Jakarta – The campaign team of incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and running mate Ma'ruf Amin has confirmed that tycoon Tomy Winata has thrown his support behind the ticket in next year's presidential election.

"It is true that [Tomy] supports presidential candidate pair number one," said the campaign team's deputy secretary, Verry Surya Hendrawan, on Monday, as quoted by tempo.co, referring to the Jokowi-Ma'ruf ticket's ballot number.

Speculation was rife that the Artha Graha boss had endorsed the Jokowi-Ma'ruf pair after a photo of him holding a shirt emblazoned with "Jokowi-Amin 01" went viral on Sunday. Tomy apparently was attending a walk initiated by Artha Graha in the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) area in Jakarta on that day.

Verry said he did not know whether the tycoon would donate money to the campaign, but he ensured that all donations would be managed transparently and in accordance with election regulations.

"All of the donations will be transferred to a bank account designated [to pool] campaign funds, which will be audited regularly," Verry said.

Separately, the campaign team of rival candidate Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno lauded the Jokowi-Ma'ruf pair for receiving support from the tycoon. "I congratulate the pair for receiving support from big businessmen," said Prabowo-Sandiaga campaign team deputy chairman Priyo Budi Santoso.

He added that, although Prabowo had not received an endorsement from a tycoon, a fast number of small enterprises were supporting the candidate. (vny/swd)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/11/27/tycoon-tomy-winata-supports-jokowi-maruf-pair.html