TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Husni Malik, the chairman of the General Elections Commissions (KPU), urged the Home Affairs Ministry to find a solution for the issues with the budget for regional head elections. Husni said several areas were not able to cover 100 percent of the budget for their respective regional elections.

“The Home Affairs Ministry must establish a regulation on regional budget allocation [for elections] since not all regionals is able to cover 100 percent of the budget. Some of them are able to cover 50 percent or even 30 percent of the budget,” Husni said on Saturday, March 28, 2015.

Based on the law, there are 65 additional regions to hold regional elections this year. Husni said most of the regions have not allocated budgets for the elections since they were not planning to hold ones.

“If the State Budget could not cover the elections, maybe provincial administrations could help. But it must be regulated by the Home Affairs Ministry,” he said.

Reydonnyzar “Donny” Moenoek, the director general for regional finance at the Home Affairs ministry, said on Friday, March 27, 2015, that having not enough fund to hold a regional election was not reasonable.

“They can use unused funds, or SILPA, cash leftover, or budget shifts. Those can cover the fund for regional elections,” he said.

However, Donny admitted that Majene administration had asked Rp13 billion (US$1 million) from the central government to help with its election.

“It doesn’t work like that. The Home Affairs Ministry can’t help with that since the fund to hold regional elections should be taken from the regional budget,” Donny said.

TIKA PRIMANDARI