37 Villages In Temanggung Will Hold Pilkades Simultaneously

TEMANGGUNG - A total of 37 of 266 villages in Temanggung Regency, Central Java, held simultaneous village head elections (Pilkades) at the end of June 2022.

Head of the Village and Community Empowerment Service (Dinpermades), Gema Aristi Wahyudi, said that the village head's final term of office was on July 1, 2022. Before the term of office ends, the village head election must be held.

According to him, ideally, 30 days before the term of office expires, the vote will be held. However, because there was a circular from the Minister of Home Affairs, the implementation of the Pilkades was slightly backward from the provisions.

He emphasized that the postponement of the simultaneous Pilkades this year was due to a new rule that required a maximum number of voters in one polling station.

Thus, he continued, the preparation of regulations for the simultaneous implementation of the Pilkades in 2022 will be more because in the previous Pilkades there was only one TPS in each village.

It is stated that the maximum implementation of the Pilkades in one TPS is only 500 voters.

"It could be that in one village there can be more than one polling station. This is to prevent crowds because this year's Pilkades is still in the COVID-19 pandemic situation," said Gema in Temanggung, quoted by Antara, Monday, February 7. In addition to the 37 villages, he said, there are five other villages that will carry out interim village elections, namely Kemloko Village, Kranggan District, Prangkoan Bejen District, Nglarangan Tretep District, Tegalrejo Ngadirejo District, and Gunungsari Village, Bansari District.

"This interim change is because four village heads died, while one village, namely Gunungsari Village, Bansari District, was involved in a drug case and was dismissed," he said.

He said the budget for the simultaneous Pilkades in 2022 from the Temanggung Regency APBD was around Rp. 1 billion.

"However, if the funds are insufficient, it will be added to the APBDes that has been budgeted by each village," he said.