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Eleven regencies in Papua to hold simultaneous elections
The Papua General Elections Commission (KPUD) has said 11 regencies in Papua will hold direct elections of regional heads simultaneously on Dec
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T
he Papua General Elections Commission (KPUD) has said 11 regencies in Papua will hold direct elections of regional heads simultaneously on Dec. 9, based on Law No.8/2015 on regional elections.
'With the issuance of the law, there will be 11 regencies in Papua that will hold regional head elections simultaneously,' said Musa Sombuk, a member of KPUD Papua's social affairs and human resources division, in Jayapura on Wednesday.
The 11 regencies are Asmat, Boven Digul, Keerom, Mamberamo Raya, Merauke, Nabire, Pegunungan Bintang, Supiori, Waropen, Yahukimo and Yalimo.
Musa said regional heads in seven out of 11 regencies will have their terms of office expire next year.
Holding simultaneous elections for regional heads in the 11 regencies would affect the availability of election funds.
'There will be no budget problems for four regencies that have been scheduled to hold regional head elections in 2015, but the seven other regencies have to include budgets for regional elections in the Revised Regional Budgets (APBD-P),' said Musa.
The problem was, he said, the deadline for submission of reports on the availability of election funds would fall on April 30.
A member of KPUD Papua's financial and logistics division, Izak Hikoyabi, said the commission would request that the General Elections Commission (KPU) in Jakarta delay the elections of regional heads in any of the 11 regencies that fail to submit budget reports on time next year.
'If the budgets are not available, how can they hold the regional head elections? The one and only solution is suggesting the KPU postpone the elections until the following year,' said Izak.
The election budgets in the regencies vary to between Rp 20 billion (US$1.54 million) and Rp 37 billion depending on the size of the area and the number of voters.
The Kerom General Elections Commission (KPU), for instance, proposed an election budget of Rp 20 billion, but only Rp 5 billion was approved by the local administration. KPU Asmat requested a Rp 31 billion election budget, but got only Rp 15 billion. Meanwhile, KPU Nabile got its Rp 30 billion budget proposal fully approved.
'KPU offices in several regencies are still waiting for the approval of their election budgets,' said Izak. (ebf)(+++)
