KPU seeks Rp 2.3 trillion for 2004 general election

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Election Commission (KPU) needs Rp 2.3 trillion for organizing and conducting the 2004 polls across the nation, KPU members officially told a hearing at House Commission II for legal and home affairs on Thursday.

"We will be setting up over 300,000 polling stations across 30 provinces, and nearly 400 regencies," KPU member Imam Budidarmawan Prasodjo, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, told the hearing.

"This is not forgetting the 3 million staff who will need training in voter education, before being deployed in provinces and regencies to supervise the voting process nationwide."

In the 1999 elections, Rp 1.3 trillion in election funds was allocated from the national budget. Imam said this figure was bound to increase since prices of several election necessities has sharply risen since then.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbekti added that the funds were needed for other critical matters such as the formation of a permanent KPU secretariat office with its own committee in regencies and provinces.

"This permanency is needed for continuity ... for supervising future elections and to secure all election assets in provinces and regencies, which can be reused in all coming elections," Ramlan told the hearing.

Following the June 1999 elections, he said, 5,000 typewriters that had been allocated for the use of elections remain unaccounted for.

He said that funds for the 2004 polls were also needed to set up an online database system that records and updates the number of voters and population data. This he said, would be continually updated by KPU secretariat members from information provided to them by district and subdistrict offices.

"Accuracy of such data is crucial during elections. Anybody for instance, in a district or subdistrict who weds, dies or moves out, will be noted by subdistrict and district offices," Ramlan told The Jakarta Post. "Staffers of KPU secretariats will be trained to coordinate with these offices in order to get such data."

The 1999 law on elections stipulates that KPU is responsible for determining the number of seats in the legislature, both at the national and regency levels.

However, data on district populations, considered the most accurate information to calculate regency populations because of the fast expansion of districts, had not been available to KPU since they had no access to population records.

Commission members earlier had used data from the 1997 election which was based on 1995 statistics. The home affairs ministry had said that 11 newly established regencies must be included with the existing 316 regencies. The commission, forced to redetermine the allotment of legislative seats, decided to base its calculations on the latest population figures.

Some forecasted operational expenses for 2004 polls:

1. Payment of staff members setting up polling stations (Rp 235 billion)

2. Establishment of secretariats, committees on national and regional level (Rp 432 billion)

3. Official trips (Rp 155 billion)

4. Polling station equipment, printers, ballot papers, stationery, voting administration needs (Rp 734 billion)

5. Voters registration, recording population data, etc. (Rp 375 billion)

6. Setting up Election Information System for records of voters and population data (Rp 120 billion).