Regional governments bemoan election funds shortage

Regional governments bemoan election funds shortage

Nana Rukmana and Rusman, The Jakarta Post/Indramayu/Samarinda

Central government needed to inject more funds into the Indramayu
regency because the administration was short of money to run the
local elections, the region's regent says.

Irianto M.S. Syaifuddin said his government could only
allocate between Rp 5 billion (US$555,555) and Rp 7 billion to
finance the direct election. That amount was far below the
estimated election budget.

"According to our estimates, we will need to spend Rp 22
billion in order to ensure the election is a success. Given that
we can only allocate Rp 5 to 7 Rp billion, we are short of Rp 17
billion. This is a task for the central government -- to help
plug the deficit," Irianto said.

The funds needed would cover election materials, voter
registrations and the salaries of thousands of electoral workers,
he said.

"We must recruit and train thousands of people to be members
of election committees down to subdistrict level, and this is
costly."

Indramayu is not the only regional government calling for more
central government money to help it run the elections.

Association of West Java Regional Governments (APKASI)
chairman Dedi Supardi said almost all local administrations in
West Java had complained they were short of funds to finance
direct elections in their regions. This year, the elections will
be held in four regencies and one municipality in West Java.

"All five regional governments have complained that they
lacked funds to finance the election. I believe the other 15
regional governments in the province will also have similar
problems (in the future)" Dedi said.

He said each regional government needed some Rp 20 billion to
hold the direct elections.

Meanwhile, the direct elections in Kutai Kartanegara, East
Kalimantan, could be postponed because of a prolonged dispute
between legislative and executive branches of local government.

The direct election is scheduled to take place in May this
year.

The conflict was sparked recently following the provincial
government's appointment of Awang Dharma Bhakti as the acting
regent of Kutai Kartanegara to replace Regent Syaukani.

The regental councillors, backed by thousands of Syaukani
supporters, rejected Awang's appointment, which led to a crisis
of government in the regency.

"If the conflict is not resolved by May, then we will have to
delay the direct election," Ischak Iskandar, the chairman of
Kutai Kartanegara's General Elections Commission, said.