Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Friday that the 2023 state budget had earmarked Rp 25.01 trillion (US$1.7 billion) to fund the election process leading up to the balloting day in February 2024.

Sri Mulyani said that the money would be sufficient to pay for the organizing of the general election and that the government would give an additional sum to be included in the 2024 state budget.

"The budget that we have prepared for the election will be enough if it is spent wisely," the finance minister was quoted by Antara as saying.

Data from the Finance Ministry show that of the sum earmarked for the general election, Rp 15.4 trillion is allocated for the General Election Commission (KPU), Rp 6.9 trillion for the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and Rp 2.6 trillion for relevant ministries.

In recent days, there has been renewed debate as to whether the government would delay the 2024 election, despite an earlier pledge from President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo that he would abide by the Constitution and serve for only two terms.

Earlier this week, former deputy law and human rights minister Denny Indrayana said that a representative of a certain group had told Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD of its readiness to push for a special session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) to amend the Constitution and pave the way for an extension of Jokowi’s term.

Source:
courtesy of THE JAKARTA POST

by News Desk (The Jakarta Post)

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