East Java's BEM to abstain from elections

SURABAYA: Members of East Java's Student Executive Board (BEM) agreed on Tuesday to abstain from voting in the 2004 general election to protest what they see as the undemocratic election bill recently passed into law.

The agreement was made during a two-day meeting of BEM members in the East Java capital of Surabaya. Around 150 representatives from 80 universities in the province attended the meeting, which ended on Tuesday.

"We are not calling on other people (not to vote), but we are trying to develop a public discourse aimed at improving the electoral system," Deyisnil Fariadi, a member of the meeting's steering committee, said.

He said the decision not to vote was not intended as a boycott of the 2004 elections.

"During the meeting we agreed on six issues, including the rejection of the election law, in particular Article 60 on (former) political prisoners, Article 74 on campaigns on campuses and Article 75 on state officials being allowed to campaign," he said.

The new law also threatens with jail those campaigning or calling for a boycott of elections. --Antara