Mahfud MD Affirms The Government Is Committed To Providing 2024 Election Budget

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD emphasized that the government is committed to providing all the necessary costs for the 2024 General Election.

"Whatever the cost is as long as it is rational. The level of rationality of the cost is discussed jointly between the KPU, the DPR, the government. That will then be financed by the government and agreed upon. The problem so far seems to be slow, it's just a matter of procedure if it has been agreed in 2022, okay," Mahfud said after chairing a meeting of the Special Election Courts Board at the office of the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Jakarta, as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, August 4.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna H Laoly, the Chairperson of the Indonesian KPU Hasyim Asy'ari, representatives of Bawaslu, the Director General of Budget at the Ministry of Finance and several related officials.

Mahfud said that the Director General of Budgeting at the Ministry of Finance, Askolani, guaranteed that the government would issue the election budget as long as the procedures had been met, such as updating or revising the Budget Implementation List (DIPA).

"It is better for the people to be happy that this democratic party will be carried out properly. The process will not be disrupted or stopped, for example, just because the costs are not smooth. That is the government's guarantee that the costs will be provided," Mahfud explained.

However, he continued, the budget provided only concerns the main things in the implementation of the General Election. Meanwhile, non-essential matters, such as office construction, salary increases and increasing the number of polling stations will be discussed again.

"We will discuss that later, whether it is necessary to build the office in a situation like now, whether the honorarium is necessary as proposed, for example, only 30 percent," he said.

The mutually agreed fund is IDR 1.24 trillion. The disbursement of the funds will be gradual in 2022, 2023, and 2024 due to its multi-year nature.

The KPU's response, continued Mahfud, is that the KPU will immediately make adjustments to the agreement so that it can be processed as soon as possible.

"But until now, the KPU's work has stopped because there is no money, it doesn't exist yet. Everything is running because the routine budget is there. The election budget in the sense of voting must be prepared from now on," he said.