Army colonel elected regent

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)