Campaigners take breaks; save energy for final round

Campaigners take breaks; 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
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 one problem -- lack of money.

Herry Suprapto, secretary to the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-
Jusuf Kalla team, said dialogs for Thursday were not planned as
his people were focusing on preparing for a rally on June 27.

"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 to campaign ahead of the July 5 poll.

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

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

Enggard Joshua of the Wiranto team, said that 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 said.

Sahrianta Tarigan, the deputy treasurer of the Megawati-Hasyim
campaign, said that his team would on Tuesday be providing public
information 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" to avoid irregularities, said Sahrianta, chairman 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 team was also facing financial constraints.

Somad said other campaign workers would concentrate on
preparing 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.