TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Police welcome election ruling
The National Police said Friday that they welcomed the Constitutional Courtâs ruling instructing that the legislative and presidential elections be held concurrently starting 2019
Change Size
T
he National Police said Friday that they welcomed theConstitutional Court's ruling instructing that the legislative and presidentialelections be held concurrently starting 2019.
National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Oegroseno said it would be more efficient to oversee the one poll in which members of legislative and executive branches were elected. 'If the two elections are held on the same date, [the security budget] should be lower. The state will not have to spend a lot of money on safeguarding the elections,' he said.
The police said they needed Rp 3.5 trillion (US$287 million) to secure the 2014 polls. Of the proposed Rp 3.5 trillion budget, Rp 1.28 trillion would cover the operations of police officers prior to and during the legislative election.
On Thursday, the Constitutional Court ruled that the presidential and legislative elections would be held concurrently from 2019.
All but one justice opined that different dates for the presidential and legislative election enabled rampant horse-trading and inefficiency.
'We concluded that tactical and temporary political bargaining should be prevented during the presidential election, so that the coalitions formed [by political parties] are long term and that integration among political parties occurs naturally,' justice Ahmad Fadlil Sumadi said.
The court also ruled that the current election mechanism contravened the Constitution, which deems the legislature and the executive branch equal in power
