Campaigners take a break; save energy for final round

Campaigners take a break; save energy for final round

Bambang Nurbianto
Jakarta

The members of the five presidential campaign teams are taking it
easy during the fourth round of the campaign in Jakarta, saving
their energies for the final round from June 27 to July 1.

During the fourth round from June 21 to June 26, none of the
campaign teams are pressing ahead with the dialogs previously
scheduled by the teams and the Jakarta General Elections
Commission in five municipalities and the Thousand Islands
regency

All campaign managers pointed to the same problem -- lack of
money.

Herry Suprapto, secretary to the Susilo-Kalla campaign team,
said there would be no dialogs held on Thursday as his people
were concentrating on preparing for a rally on June 27.

"Frankly speaking, we need to save our energies for the rally
at the Bung Karno sports complex's main stadium on June 27, which
will be attended by our candidates," Herry told The Jakarta Post
on Tuesday.

He said that unlike the Democratic Party campaign for the
April 5 legislative elections, the Susilo-Kalla ticket had only
limited financial resources.

On Thursday, he explained, canvassers in Jakarta's five
municipalities would confine themselves to distributing posters
and other Susilo-Kalla paraphernalia.

During the fourth round, the Wiranto and Solahuddin Wahid team
were scheduled to hold dialogs on June 21, the Megawati
Soekarnoputri and Hasyim Muzadi team on June 22, the Amien Rais
and Siswono Yudohusodo team on June 23, and the Hamzah Haz and
Agum Gumelar team on June 25.

Previously, Enggard Joshua, a member of the Wiranto campaign
team, said that campaign dialogs would not be organized on Monday
as the national campaign team had not disbursed the necessary
funds.

"We hope that dialogs can be held in the final round. We plan
to organize dialogs in five municipalities on July 1," he told
the Post on Monday.

Sahrianta Tarigan, the deputy treasurer of the Megawati-Hasyim
campaign, said that his team would be engaging in "soft
campaigning" on Tuesday by providing information to people on how
to vote on July 5.

He said other team members would hold discussions with the
volunteers who were charged with monitoring the vote in polling
stations on election day.

"We will warn them of the need to observe the ballot count
closely so as to ensure there are no irregularities," said
Sahrianta, who is also an executive of the Prosperous Peace Party
(PDS).

The chairman of the Amien-Siswono campaign team, Ahmad Somad
Karim, also said his team would not hold public dialogs on
Wednesday. Rather, he said, his workers would provide free
medical services for the poor in North, South, West and East
Jakarta.

He said the money for this had been collected from a number of
local donors. He stressed that his team had not received any
money from Amien's national campaign center, saying that the
national campaign was also facing financial constraints.

According to Somad, the team's "medical campaign" would not
involve a large number of people. Other campaign workers would
concentrate on making preparations for a rally at the Bung Karno
sports complex's main stadium on June 26.

Suaidy, the chairman of the Hamzah-Agum campaign team, said
his team would not hold dialogs in four of Jakarta's five
municipalities on June 24. He said it would instead engage in
"soft campaigning" like distributing Hamzah and Agum
paraphernalia.

The only dialog to be held by the Hamzah-Agum team would be in
North Jakarta, and would be confined to women, said Suaidy, who
is also the chairman of the United Development Party's Jakarta
chapter.