The General Elections Commission (KPU) has raised concerns over regional administrations’ capability to provide funds for the 2020 concurrent regional elections after six regencies reported that they would not be able to provide the amount targeted for the polls.  

The regions were initially committed to allocating a total of Rp 11.95 trillion (US$876.4 million) to fund their elections this year, but later said they could only spend Rp 9.93 trillion or less. The KPU has also found that the regional administrations have only disbursed Rp 444.05 million, or 4.47 percent of the budget until Jan. 10.

“We have found that many local administrations, which are required to fund their regional elections, have revised their election budgets, which raises concerns over their ability to fund an election,” said KPU chief Arief Budiman.

The 2020 regional elections will be held in 270 regions across Indonesia on Sept. 23, when the voters will elect leaders in nine provinces, 224 regencies and 37 cities.

Arief said that aside from revising down their budgetary commitment, representatives from Ogan Ilir and East Ogan Komering Ulu regencies of South Sumatra had visited the poll body office earlier this month, asking for advice on how to fulfill their responsibilities in funding the elections.

Arief lamented the situation, saying that the regional administrations should have thoroughly planned funds for the scheduled elections so that they could be ready for disbursement in February when the KPU would begin to verify administration requirements for regional leader candidates.

“After they [the two regency administrations] visited us, we asked them to visit the Home Ministry for further assistance. We can only hope that the ministry has provided them with the right solution for the issue,” he added.

Bahtiar, the Home Ministry’s spokesperson, said that South Sumatra Governor Herman Deru had visited the ministry’s office in Gambir, Central Jakarta, early in January, saying that the two regency administrations were facing budget constraints in funding the elections.

However, Bahtiar said there had been no complaints from other administrations regarding the issue. Still, he feared that they might also be experiencing financial difficulties in funding the elections.

“We are concerned that other administrations are in the same situation, so we will monitor their election budget via our general inspector and we will hold a meeting in February to evaluate their preparations ahead of the concurrent elections,” Bahtiar said, adding that the ministry would invite all members of the Regional Elections Commission (KPUD), the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and regional administration secretaries (Sekda) to the evaluation meeting.

Bahtiar also said that many regional administrations had yet to deliver their complaints over the election budget to the ministry as they had not actually disbursed the election budget, further stressing that the election expenses might start burdening their regional spending in April as the KPUD and Bawaslu start establishing district election committees (PPK) and hiring people to be included in several ad-hoc committees related to the elections.

Despite facing budgetary issues, the regional administrations are still obliged to fund their local elections since they have already signed an election fund disbursement agreement (NPHD) with the KPUD and Bawaslu. Moreover, Article 166 of the 2016 Regional Elections Law also mandates them to fund their own elections.

Bawaslu head Abhan said beside the two regencies in South Sumatra, there were at least four other administrations that had encountered similar problems. They are Rejang Lebong in Bengkulu province, Mukomuko in Jambi, Kotabaru in South Kalimantan, and Purworejo in Central Java. 

“The administrations have cut their election budget and opted to amend their NPHD due to constraints in their regional budget,” Abhan said.

He suggested the government evaluate the local administrations’ budgets since budget insufficiency could undermine Bawaslu's capability to supervise the elections because the funds would also be allocated to pay fees for election witnesses.

“We have asked the Home Ministry to encourage regional administrations not to cut their election budget, so that we can conduct better supervision during the upcoming regional elections,” Abhan said.

Titi Anggraini, the executive director of election watchdog Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), agreed that the Home Ministry should be more active in giving assistance to the regional administrations otherwise the lack of funds would be used as an excuse for regional administrations to push the idea of electing local leaders through indirect elections.

Therefore, she demanded the central government allocate a portion of the state budget to fund regional elections so that every region could still enjoy the elections.

“We understand that Article 166 of the Regional Election Law mandates regional administrations to fund their elections, but in the same article it also states that the election budget can still be supported by the state budget,” Titi told The Jakarta Post. (glh)

Popular

Volcano erupts in North Sulawesi, hundreds evacuated

Dubai roads, airport reel from floods after record rains

Ramadan boosts consumer confidence, retail sales