Army colonel elected regent

TANGERANG (JP): The regency legislative council elected Col. Agus Djunara the new Tangerang regent yesterday for the 1998/2003 term replacing Saifullah Abdulrachman.

Agus, currently an assistant for sociopolitical affairs at Jakarta Military Command, won 35 of the 44 votes. His contenders, Manaf Mulyana and Sudirman got six and three votes respectively.

Manaf is the incumbent chief of the Tangerang Agency for the Propagation of Pancasila and Sudirman is the regency's chief inspector.

Beaming with happiness, Agus was busy tending to well-wishers and refused journalists' requests to comment on his landslide victory.

"Don't press me for statements. Wait for a while," he said. You can look at the expression on my face, can't you?"

The outgoing regent, Saifullah, said he was worried the deteriorating economic crisis would devastate Tangerang's economy.

He predicted the regency's revenue would drop and there would be less money in the state coffers to get things moving. (41)