Cirebon removes party attributes

Cirebon removes party attributes

CIREBON, West Java: As the 2004 general elections are drawing
near, public order officials at the Cirebon administration began
on Tuesday to remove party attributes throughout the port city.

Agus Sukmanjaya, head of the Cirebon Public Order Office, said
that the removal was to maintain the tidiness of the city and to
prevent political parties from grabbing a head start on their
rivals ahead of the scheduled start of campaigning.

The official campaign period for political parties will begin
early next year, just a few months before they contest the 2004
elections in April.

Agus gave an assurance that the removal of the attributes,
including flags, banners and posters, would not draw an adverse
reaction from political groups as the administration had reached
an agreement with at least 25 parties in Cirebon.

In a meeting with the parties on Sept. 19, they agreed to pull
down hundreds of their own attributes before Sept. 30, but failed
to do so by the deadline,

As a consequence, local public order officers moved to rid the
city of party attributes.

Agus said that within 10 days Cirebon would be free of them.
--JP