Election Budget: Public Expenditure or Investment?
Ramlan Surbakti
Expenditures start from making regulations for each stage of the election, including their familiarization, registering voters and/or updating the voter list, providing services to election participants (political parties and their legislative candidates, presidential and vice presidential candidates, and individuals) from registration to campaign facilitation, hiring staff and officials, supplying goods (election logistics) and services, holding coordination meetings and providing technical trainings, and familiarizing the election, as well as travel costs, security, supervision and law enforcement, and unexpected/unanticipated costs.
The biggest expenditures in implementing the election are the allowances for polling committee and election organizers, who number around 11 million direct staff under the General Elections Commission (KPU) and 1 million personnel under the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), supplies procurement and distribution for the polls and vote tabulation, and services to election participants. Other activities that also require large funds are supervising the election (Bawaslu) and election security (the National Police and the Indonesian Military/TNI).
If the stages and programs of the election are not adequately funded, the result will be a failed election, which can have dire consequences for society, the economy, politics, and even human victims. The government and the House of Representatives (DPR) approved a total budget of around Rp 33.73 trillion for the 2019 simultaneous elections. Of this amount, Rp 25.59 trillion was allocated to administration (under KPU management), Rp 4.85 trillion to supervision (under Bawaslu management), and Rp 3.29 trillion for supporting activities, such as security, political education and transparency.
The final budget will be known at the end of 2019, because the KPU\'s final tasks are the presidential inauguration on Oct. 20, 2019 and evaluating the 2019 simultaneous elections, if it is included in the 2019 budget. If this Rp 33.73 trillion is divided among the 192,866,254 eligible voters, each voter spends an average of Rp 174,888. Is this per voter budget very high?
What is certain is that the costs cannot be compared with other countries due to the different contexts, such as the balloting and counting methods in Indonesia (second to none in the world, constituting the best practice for the Indonesian electoral democracy) and its archipelagic geography that requires the use of all means of transportation to distribute election supplies, ranging from animal transport to manual labor to boats and planes.
However, the focus of this article is not the election cost per voter, but whether this vast election budget is a public cost or an investment. Those that view the election budget as a cost of holding the election as a democratic event consist of three groups: sellers, buyers, and public servants. Election
participants sell "candidates and programs" as commodities and market their products during the campaign period. Voters are consumers (buyers) who use their voting rights by marking (punching) the ballots after digesting these campaign materials.
Election organizers provide their services to election participants, from registration up to campaign facilitation – providing and installing visual materials and campaign advertisements – and to voters, from registration and/or updating voter lists, printing and distributing ballots and other tools for voting and counting – such as ballot boxes, procedural familiarization for each stage of the election, notification letters and the voting and vote counting processes. These are referred to as spending, because once this party is finished, it becomes a memory. All these activities need very large funds.
Institutionalization of government
However, other groups have different views. The cost of the election is more than just a list of expenditures necessary to implement an election where the voters are consumers, election participants are "commodity sellers" through their campaigns, and election officials are public service providers. The election expenditures finance more than the process by which ballots are printed, distributed and then punched by voters, after which they are later counted and tabulated by election officials. The election budget is nothing more than paying fees to the election organizers to establish a stable and inclusive democratic society.
Sixty-two percent of the world\'s population lives under a democratic system. Election financing is seen as public investment to ensure that the people – the citizens who have the right to choose to whom they will bestow their sovereignty at the ballot boxes – control the public decision-making and political decision-makers. This investment also guarantees political equality among these citizens who exercise control through the “one man, one vote” principle.
Those that view the election budget as public investment do not see this large budget as an expense for a party that, once finished, will be just a memory. Those who view the election budget as public investment view a democratically held election as institutionalizing the national government.
Democratic elections do require large funds, but are very useful for forming a national (state) government so that it can carry out its duties and authorities to realize state goals. Democratic elections are elections that are based on laws and regulations that elaborate on the four principles of democracy (the seven principles of elections, civil rights and freedoms, the four aspects of an honest elections, and electoral justice) and legal guarantees. The process of organizing an election is based on a set of procedures and provisions (based on laws and regulations) that are the same for all parties. This is called predictable process.
Democratic elections are based on the principle of equality among citizens, as indicated by a final voter list that includes all citizens who are eligible to vote, and each vote is counted equally. Democratic elections are characterized by free and fair competition among election participants, so that all parties have an equal opportunity to garner votes. Democratic elections do not only guarantee strict procedures based on laws and regulations, but also guarantee that no party can know (through power and manipulation) the results, which are unpredictable.
Realizing state goals
The active participation of citizens in the various stages and programs of administering the election, such as the very high voter turnout, the involvement of civil society organizations in monitoring the elections, conducting surveys and quick counts, the election volunteers and media coverage and broadcasts of election activities, undoubtedly constitute an indicator of a democratic election. Election organizers that are independent and professional, possess integrity and effective and efficient leadership, are indicators of the next democratic election.
The three parameters of the latest democratic election are: (a) the voting process and vote counting, and the recapitulating the tabulation results, are conducted under and follow the electoral principle with integrity; (b) law enforcement and electoral dispute settlements are carried out fairly and on time; and (c) all parties that are involved and interact in the process of organizing the elections strictly adhere to the principle of nonviolence.
As soon as the KPU determines and announces the election results, one aspect of a democratic political culture will emerge: the defeated presidential candidate pair will admit defeat and congratulate the victor, and the candidate pair that is declared the victor based on the UUD will thank the defeated pair for competing democratically and extend an invitation to participate as their political opposition. Both candidate pairs will respect each other: the defeated pair will respect the victorious pair because they have gained the trust of the majority of voters and the support of the majority of provinces; the winners respect the losers because they have gained the support of many voters, even if they did not comprise the majority.
The democratic elections that are held periodically (once every five years for Indonesia) will produce: (a) a president, vice president and DPR (and Regional Representatives Council, or DPD) that the people trust; (b) a stable government because the president and vice president, DPR and DPD cannot be dissolved during their terms of office unless they are proven to have violated the law as stipulated in the Constitution; and (c) a system of government that requires the president and vice president, the DPR and DPD to be accountable to the people at least by the end of their term. A democratic election places sovereignty in the hands of the people (voters), which means that they are at least given the right to exercise their power through the ballot boxes – not only to influence the process of public policymaking, but also to determine who will make and implement public policy.
Democratic elections are seen to institutionalize the government because they do not merely produce an elected president, vice president and DPR (and DPD) members. State administrators, the legislature and the executive body, will in time appoint judges and constitutional justices, the members of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), the governors and board of directors of Bank Indonesia, Cabinet ministers, the attorney general, KPU members, the TNI commander, the National Police chief, and members of various state commissions (Komnas HAM, KPPU, KPI, and others). This means that all state apparatuses will be formed and commence with carrying out their duties and responsibilities once the democratic election has determines the president and the DPR.
In short, the election budget is seen as a public investment because a democratic election produces and mobilizes state administrators to realize the country\'s goals.
Ramlan Surbakti, Comparative Politics Professor, Airlangga University, Surabaya; member, Indonesian Academy of Sciences Organizing a general election posts extensive expenditures.
