Election work continues despite judicial review
Election work continues despite judicial review
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government's preparations for the country's first ever
regional elections continues despite the ongoing judicial review
process of Law No. 32/2004 on elections.
Minister of Home Affairs M. Ma'ruf said the judicial process
at the Constitutional Court did not affect the preparations as
around 60 percent of the works in each area had been covered.
"Of course we'll respect and abide by any legal rulings. But
let me remind that these elections must be immediately executed
because further delay will adversely affect the performance of
the local governments," he said on Thursday.
The Constitutional Court's acceptance to the judicial review
will cancel all preparations for the direct regional elections.
Ma'ruf said he had submitted the operational budget for the
elections to the Ministry of Finance, amounting to Rp 929.56
billion (US$99.95 million), excluding the costs for dissemination
of information on regional elections, technical assistance and
evaluation.
"We expect the government to cover half of the costs from the
State Budget, while the remainder will be paid by local budgets.
But the decision is up to the finance minister," he said.
The fund from the State Budget will be allocated to each
regency and municipality proportionally, depending on their
respective financial capacities.
"Of course we will allocate more for areas that have limited
local budgets or that have just been established recently," said
Timbul Pujianto, the directorate general of finance in local
administrations at the home ministry.
At least 181 regencies/cities are expected to have hold
regional elections by June, while the rest 45 to have completed
by December.
Law No. 32/2004 came into force in October last year. While
the law was ostensibly enacted to nurture democracy in the
country, many have warned of a possible backlash over its many
confusing stipulations.
A number of non-government organizations and provincial
offices of the General Elections Commission brought the law to
the court, saying it contravenes the Constitution as it fails to
ensure principles of fairness and impartiality during and after
elections.
The plaintiffs also rejected questionable sections of the law
concerning the resolution to administrative and election
disputes, and crimes arising from poll proceedings.
The Constitution stipulates that disputes over results of the
general elections at the national level are settled by the
Constitutional Court, but it says nothing about elections for
regional leaders.