Stages Of The Election Begins, Commission II Of The DPR Asks The Ministry Of Finance To Immediately Disburse KPU's Budget

JAKARTA - House of Representatives Commission II member Guspardi Gaus asked the government to immediately disburse the financial needs needed by the General Elections Commission (KPU). Moreover, the stages of the election have started since last June 14.

It is known, the KPU has opened the stages of registering political parties from August 1-14 2022. Then the administrative and factual verification stages as well as other stages such as determining election participants which will be announced on December 14, 2022. "Not to mention the determination of the number of seats and electoral districts that are also included in the election. the stages of the election to be held in 2022," Guspardi told reporters, Tuesday, August 2.

Guspardi said that to be able to hold various stages of the election, the KPU really needed adequate budget support. However, based on information from the KPU, from the KPU's 2022 budget ceiling of Rp8.06 trillion, only Rp2.4 trillion has been disbursed. "And on July 26, 2022, the Ministry of Finance through the Director General of Budgeting of the Ministry of Finance only realized an additional KPU budget of Rp. 1.245 trillion. This means that there is still a budget shortfall of Rp. 4.415 trillion which has not been disbursed by the government," said the PAN politician.

The legislator from West Sumatra also revealed that during a joint meeting for the first level decision-making regarding the Papua New Guinea on June 28, he had voiced and asked the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani to immediately disburse the remaining KPU budget so that it could be prioritized. "Unfortunately, to this day, the government has not been able to fully fulfill the amount of the KPU's budget shortfall for the 2022 budget year," said Guspardi.

Therefore, the DPR Baleg member hopes that the government, in this case the Ministry of Finance, can give more special attention to accelerate the realization of the budget shortfall needed by the KPU, in accordance with the priority needs whose budget has been approved by Commission II of the DPR RI. "Then we also hope for support from friends in the budget agency (Banggar) to ask the Minister of Finance so that the KPU's budget can be immediately disbursed. For the smooth running of the election stages and programs that have been designed by the KPU," he said.

"However, I also ask the KPU to be able to optimize the existing budget in carrying out various stages to the maximum, while waiting for the budget shortfall to be disbursed by the government," Guspardi added.

Previously, Chairman of the General Elections Commission (KPU) Hasyim Asy'ari said that the preparation for the 2024 General Election and a number of stages could potentially not run optimally because it was not supported by the fulfillment of the required budget. This was conveyed in a press conference at the KPU RI office, Friday, July 29.

The disbursement of the KPU's budget for 2022 is stuck at the Ministry of Finance. Even though the budget has been agreed upon in discussions with the DPR and the Government. "Meanwhile, the KPU needs a budget to go through various stages of the general election, which has actually started on June 14, 2022," said Hasyim.