The state must allocate a budget of a minimum Rp 38.2 trillion for the General Elections Commission (KPU), Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the National Police in managing the 2019 general election.
By
·3 minutes read
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The state must allocate a budget of a minimum Rp 38.2 trillion for the General Elections Commission (KPU), Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the National Police in managing the 2019 general election. The budget does not cover the electoral costs of candidates running for the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD), Regional Representatives Council (DPD) or the presidential election, including their campaign teams and political party backers.
There are 7,968 DPR candidates contesting the 2019 general election. If a single candidate has readied Rp 2 billion for their electoral bid, their final expenditure would total Rp 15.9 trillion.
For example, House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon said in Jakarta on Tuesday (25/08/2018) that he had prepared Rp 3 billion for his bid in the 2019 legislative election. He said this amount did not differ greatly from his electoral costs for the 2014 legislative election, when he spent Rp 2.5 billion to Rp 3 billion.
Gun Gun Heryanto, a lecturer at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University- Jakarta, said that three factors could be attributed to the increase in the cost of the general election, particularly with regard to the legislative candidates’ potential expenditures: First, vote buying; second, a lack of measurable and targeted campaign strategies; third, the potential transactional cost of their nomination.
"Election organizers must set a limit to campaign funds. Moreover, there is a need to educate the public not to be swayed by money politics," he said.
KPU chairman Arief Budiman said that, with such a large budget, democracy must be implemented effectively. One way of ensuring effective democracy was by voting for the best candidate. This would only be possible if the public actively sought information on the candidates’ track records.
Effectively implementing democracy would prevent the emergence of public distrust. Distrust was highly dangerous for democracy.
Budget
KPU secretary-general Arif Rahman Hakim said the commission had received a three-year electoral budget of Rp 27.3 trillion to cover the costs of organizing the 2019 general election, from 2017 through 2019. The budget is exclusive to the KPU\'s regular operational budget of Rp 5.8 trillion. In comparison, the KPU received a three-year electoral budget of Rp 20.3 trillion from 2012 through 2014 for the 2014 general election and a Rp 3.6 trillion operational budget.
"The increase in the budget [from 2014] is caused by the fact that several costs have increased, such as the honorarium for ad hoc electoral bodies, an increased number of ad hoc organizers, and increased costs due to inflation," said Arif.
However, he said that the budget was not disbursed in full. The commission saved Rp 2.9 trillion during the 2014 general election because the presidential election was completed in a single round. The KPU estimated potential savings of Rp 10.6 trillion for the 2019 general election, once it was confirmed a single round would be held in the presidential election, as only two candidate pairs were running.
Meanwhile, a Rp 8.6 trillion budget has been allocated to the Bawaslu for the 2019 general election, larger than its Rp 4.1 trillion budget for the 2014 general election budget. Bawaslu chairman Abhan said the budget was increased to accommodate the 805,000 polling station monitors in the 2019 general election.
The National Police has been allocated Rp 2.3 trillion to secure campaign activities until voting day in 2019.