The Ministry Of Finance Has Not Found The Remaining Budget For This Year's Election, The KPU Brings Jokowi's Name

KPU Commissioner Idham Holik (Photo via Diah/VOI)

JAKARTA - The General Elections Commission (KPU) requires a budget for preparation for the 2024 General Election to be used this year amounting to Rp8.06 trillion. However, only Rp2.4 trillion has been disbursed.

Meanwhile, the remaining budget needs for this year are still in the hands of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu).

KPU commissioner Idham Holik is still optimistic that the remaining budget will be disbursed in the near future.

Holik said that President Joko Widodo fully supports the KPU in holding the 2024 election stages. This support was conveyed by Jokowi when he received the KPU hearing some time ago.

"We have conveyed all of this to the President and during our hearing he was very supportive of holding the 2024 simultaneous elections. We are confident and we trust the government with full support for us," said Idham at the KPU RI office, Central Jakarta, Friday, June 24. .

Currently, the election budget has been agreed upon by the government and the DPR RI. KPU Regulation Number 3 of 2022 concerning the Stages and Schedule for the Implementation of the 2024 General Election has also been issued.

Therefore, Idham admitted that his party continues to coordinate with the government regarding the disbursement of the budget.

"The target for disbursement is after the budget has been agreed upon, after saying that the hammer will hit us. We are in intense communication with the government. We are sure that the budget will come down soon," he said.

For information, the political contestation budget allocation in 2024 is IDR 76.6 trillion divided into three years, namely in 2022 IDR 8.06 trillion (10.52 percent), in 2023 it is IDR 23.85 trillion (31.12 percent), and in 2024 amounting to Rp44.73 (58.36 percent).

The election budget that will be used for this year is still less than Rp. 5.6 trillion. Previously, RI KPU member Yulianto Sudrajat said that the reason for the election budget allocation was not fully paid up because the Ministry of Finance was still waiting for the issuance of KPU regulations (PKPU) regarding the election stages.

Now, after PKPU Number 3 of 2022 concerning the Stages and Schedule for the Implementation of the 2024 General Election has been promulgated, the Ministry of Finance will discuss the budget shortfall.

In this discussion, the General Secretariat of the KPU and the Director General of Budgeting of the Ministry of Finance will examine the addition of the election preparation budget for 2022 that is required by the KPU.

However, Yulianto continued, this discussion requires the approval of the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani as the State General Treasurer.

"Regarding the time when it can be discussed with the Director General of Budget of the Ministry of Finance, it depends on the approval of the Minister of Finance to discuss," he said.