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