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Indonesia's legislative elections are scheduled for April 9 next year and will be followed by the presidential election in July.
This means that the official campaign period is nine months - believed to be the longest in Indonesia's electoral history. In the last election in 2004, parties had only 21 days to campaign.
The ministers cannot use their official cars or the transport fleet of their ministries' regional offices for campaigning purposes.
'They are also banned from using other facilities owned by the ministries and the regional governments,' said KPU official Abdul Aziz.
Some analysts are concerned that this long campaigning period could cripple President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration and raise the country's political temperature by several notches.
This is because instead of working together, ministers belonging to different parties will compete against one another instead, say analysts.
'Government work may be at a standstill because our ministers would be busy campaigning,' said analyst Arbi Sanit from the University of Indonesia.
'This would be counter-productive for the government as ministers are allowed to shirk their responsibilities to the people.'
The new guidelines allow ministers to go on leave for two days in a week, for example on a Monday and Tuesday, or a Thursday and Friday. With the weekend, that gives them four days for campaigning.
But critics say that there already is a tendency for ministers to disappear on Thursday and Friday. If they were to take two other days off as well, they would effectively be working just one day a week.
Analyst Kacung Marijan from the University of Airlangga in Surabaya said the KPU should have restricted the number of days in a month that a minister could go on leave.
'In the nine months of campaigning, if the ministers work only one day in a week, it means that they work for only 37 days during this period and would not have time to serve the people,' he said.
About half of President Yudhoyono's 35 Cabinet members are party leaders and functionaries.
They include Cooperatives Minister Suryadharma Ali of the United Development Party (PPP), Forestry Minister Malem Sambet Kaban of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), and Women's Affairs Minister Meutia Hatta of the Justice and Unity Party (PKPI).
The guidelines allowing Cabinet ministers to take leave from work to campaign is significant, as it would determine which parties could field a candidate for the presidential election.
There has been talk that ministers such as Mr Suryadharma and Ms Meutia are eyeing either the presidency or vice-presidency, depending on their respective parties' performance in the legislative elections.
The law dictates that candidates can contest the presidency only if their parties have captured at least 15 per cent of the votes cast in the legislative elections.
Meanwhile, Dr Yudhoyono, chief patron of the Democrat Party, and Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, chairman of Golkar, have said they would not be campaigning for their respective parties.
This gives a level of assurance that the country's top political leaders will not abandon their duties to do election campaigning.
Several ministers have also given their assurances that their absence would not disrupt the government machinery.
'Leave from work can still be taken as long as it does not affect our role as a minister,' said Mr Suryadharma.
Ms Meutia said she would go on leave only if it did not disrupt her work at the ministry.
'I always have this public trust in me as a minister and will not neglect my responsibilities to the people,' she said.
Even so, Mr Arbi observed that several ministers were already busy with party work even before the official campaign period was announced.
'Now we have to brace ourselves for nine months of campaigning with absentee ministers in the Cabinet,' he said.
ONE DAY OF WORK
