KPU members criticized for overseas voter program

M. Taufiqurrahman and Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

A coalition of non-governmental organizations criticized on Monday an overseas trip by three members of the General Elections Commission (KPU), branding it a waste of funds that the commission currently lacked.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) and the Indonesian Forum for Parliamentary Concern (Formappi) said in a joint statement that the trip, under the guise of a voter education program, had little relevance to the Sept. 20 runoff election as the bulk of voters resided in the country.

"The number of registered voters abroad is around 458,000 or only 0.29 percent of a total 153.3 million eligible voters, so the voter education program for overseas voters should not have been a priority for the KPU," Formappi secretary-general Sebastian Salang said.

He said that voter education was not of great importance as overseas voters were mostly educated and better informed compared with voters in the country.

Beginning last week, members of the KPU will take turns to travel to foreign countries.

KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin has just returned from the Netherlands, Austria, Norway and Hungary.

Commission member Chusnul Mariyah is currently touring Middle Eastern countries, while fellow member Daan Dimara is expected to leave for Argentina in the near future.

Members of the KPU made similar trips earlier in January.

Nazaruddin defended the overseas journey, saying voter education was important, regardless of the number of voters. "However small in number, we cannot ignore our voters abroad," he said.

He also said the trip was part of a KPU campaign to tell the outside world about the country's electoral process and would be valuable to further diplomatic relations with other countries.

Data from the KPU secretary-general said the commission had earmarked Rp 19 billion (US$2.1 million) to organize elections on foreign soil and finance the trips abroad.

The trips were made while the KPU was preparing for the runoff election on a shoestring budget. The House of Representatives budgetary committee has agreed, after a prolonged discussion with the KPU, to disburse Rp 62.9 million in bridging funds to help the commission organize the Sept. 20 runoff, compared with the Rp 418 billion proposed by the KPU.

Meanwhile, Nazaruddin said during a meeting with the budgetary committee on Monday that the remainder of the election budget should be disbursed before the end of this month.

"Given the significance of the funds to cover a variety of expenses for distribution of electoral materials and other operational costs, we request that they be disbursed by the end of August," Nazaruddin told the hearing, which was attended by Minister of Finance Boediono.

Nazaruddin was referring to the Rp 356 billion in funds the KPU had earlier requested, in addition to the bridging fund.