Elections body receives beefs about candidates<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The General Elections Institute has received a
\nnumber of complaints about candidates of the three political
\ngroupings contesting the May general election.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security
\nSoesilo Soedarman said after a meeting of ministers under his
\ncoordination here yesterday the institute had received three
\ncomplaints about candidates of the Moslem-based United
\nDevelopment Party (PPP), 18 about candidates of the ruling
\nGolkar, and five objections to nationalist-Christian alliance
\nIndonesian Democratic Party (PDI) candidates.<\/p>\n
According to Soesilo, the complaints ranged from doubts about
\ncandidates' \"morality\" and \"commitment to state ideology,\" to
\nreports about alleged criminal activity. He refused to disclose
\nthe kind of crimes said to have been committed by the prospective
\npeoples representatives.<\/p>\n
\"Have pity on them,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The General Elections Institute announced 2,303 names on the
\nprovisional list of House of Representatives candidates. The PPP
\nhas 730 nominees, Golkar has 829, and PDI has 744.<\/p>\n
The public are allowed to scrutinize and raise objections to
\nthe candidates. The time allocated for this purpose is between
\nJan 21 and Feb. 18. Afterward, the institute will announce the
\nfinal list of candidates.<\/p>\n
After the meeting yesterday, Soesilo also spoke about the
\nplanned establishment of Alert Command Centers across the
\ncountry. He said they were not new institutions but \"meant to
\nsharpen and increase the function of the already existing
\ndistrict military commands\".<\/p>\n
He said the centers would be useful as an early warning system
\nto detect possible unrest and prevent it.<\/p>\n
Cheating<\/p>\n
Separately, in Probolinggo, East Java, chairman of the regency
\nchapter of PPP said yesterday around 1,400 young party cadres
\nfrom 325 villages and five sub-districts would be trained to
\ndetect and handle unfair practices during the general election.<\/p>\n
Musyafa said his party would deploy the trained cadres to all
\nvoting booths in the regency.<\/p>\n
\"We will also prepare two more trained cadres in each village
\nas a backup in case the first cadres can not serve at the
\nbooths,\" he was quoted by Antara as saying.<\/p>\n
He said the training would be conducted in the hope that the
\ngeneral election would be held in accordance with the principle
\nof Luber (Indonesian acronym for a direct, public, free, and
\nconfidential election).<\/p>\n
In yet another development, the state-owned telecommunication
\ncompany PT. Telkom Indonesia announced Wednesday they had
\ninstalled a telecommunication system for use by government
\nagencies responsible of organizing and supervising the May 29
\ngeneral election.<\/p>\n
Among the facilities making up the system is a \"Telkomnet\"
\nwhich will be on-line around-the-clock to convey quickly and
\naccurately preliminary results of ballot-counting from provincial
\ncommittees to the national committee, Antara reported.<\/p>\n
PT. Telkom had also provided telephone and facsimile lines to
\nconnect district and provincial committees and even special lines
\nto link sub-districts to districts as long as the districts
\npossessed an automatic telephone center.<\/p>\n
Telecommunications services and facilities would be available
\nacross the country, particularly at the National Elections
\nCommittee headquarters in Cilangkap, the command post on Jl. Imam
\nBonjol in Central Jakarta, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the
\nprovincial and district-level committees, regional and resort
\nmilitary commands, regional and resort police commands.<\/p>\n
Special telephone lines were also being made available to
\nhigh-ranking state officials, Antara reported. (imn\/08\/swe)<\/p>",
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