Council cuts governor reception budget
Andreas D. Arditya, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Jakarta | Fri, September 28 2012, 9:22 AM
Paper Edition | Page: 9
The Jakarta City Council secretariat has decided to tone down the planned inauguration ceremony for the new governor, cutting the budget to less than Rp 500 million (US$52,000), following protests.
Council secretary Mangara Pardede said on Thursday that the budget cut for the ceremony, which is scheduled for Oct. 7, was made after meetings with the Council’s Commission A overseeing administrative affairs.
“In the city’s 2012 budget, we had allocated up to Rp 1.05 billion for the ceremony,” Mangara said.
Among the allocations cut were funds for a choir, singer, sound system, decorations and musical band.
The secretariat also decided to deploy only 250 security personnel, instead of the planned 500, a day before and after the event.
A total of 2,000 people would be invited to the ceremony.
Previously, the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) criticized the large budget.
Major council faction chairmen also jumped into the protest.
Aliman Aat and Selamat Nurdin, chairmen of the largest faction, the Democratic Party and the second largest the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) — who between them control 50 seats out of the total 94,
said the ceremony should not be extravagant.
The council majority supported incumbent Governor Fauzi Bowo in the Sept. 20 runoff election. Fauzi has conceded to challenger Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
An ongoing poll count at the Jakarta Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) has shown that Jokowi leads the gubernatorial race in five municipalities, while Fauzi only won in the Thousand Islands regency.
The preliminary count results show that Jokowi won a total of 2,472,139 out of 4,592,045 valid votes cast, or 53.8 percent, while Fauzi won 2,12,0815 votes or 46.2 percent in the runoff. Jokowi finished first in July, receiving 1.85 million, or 42.6 percent of the 4.3 million votes cast, while Fauzi came in second with 1.48 million votes.
With a total of 6,996,951 people registered in the voters’ roll, the runoff recorded a 66.7 percent turnout, higher than during the first round of the gubernatorial election on July 11, which was 63.7 percent.
The poll organizer is planning to start the final vote recapitulation at Hotel Borobudur in Central Jakarta, on Friday afternoon.
