Election agency gives Soerjadi candidate forms

Election agency gives Soerjadi candidate forms

JAKARTA (JP): The government reinforced its support of
Soerjadi as chief of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) by
providing him yesterday with forms to submit his candidates for
legislative bodies.

The General Elections Institute gave Soerjadi 850 forms for
the preliminary list of candidates, despite continued protest
from supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri, whom Soerjadi ousted
at a government-sponsored rebel congress in Medan, North Sumatra,
last month.

"A delegation of PDI's central board came here and took the
forms for the preliminary list of legislators," institute
spokesman Dailami said.

The delegation, led by secretary-general Buttu Hutapea,
consisted of Panangian Siregar, Ismunandar, Hermawi F. Taslim and
Romulus Sihombing.

Megawati and her supporters have rejected Soerjadi's group as
unconstitutional, and decried the government's decision to allow
him to draw up the list. Megawati's camp has prepared their own
list of candidates for the House of Representatives and the lower
provincial legislative councils.

Hutapea, however, denied that his delegation came to the
institute to fetch the documents. He said they came only for a
consultation.

Meanwhile, dozens of Soerjadi's supporters took over the
office of PDI's Jakarta chapter in Petamburan, West Jakarta
yesterday, but were later chased away by Megawati supporters.

Haryanto Taslam, deputy secretary-general of Megawati's board,
said Megawati's supporters have initially decided to hand over
the office to the police, pending a solution to the leadership
dispute. They were in the middle of removing files and equipment
when police gave the keys to the office to Suryadi's supporters,
who tried to force their way in.

The Megawati loyalists then assembled about 50 men and
returned to reoccupy the building.

Following a brief occupation, about 150 pro-Megawati activists
from the Jakarta chapter tried unsuccessfully to proceed to
Soerjadi's official residence.

Riding motorbikes and wearing the party's color, red, the
protesters were forced to turn back by anti-riot police, who
blocked the street in front of the residence.

Representatives of the protesters managed to meet Buttu
Hutapea and gave him a copy of a petition attesting their
rejection of the results of the Medan congress. In the document,
they also condemned Soerjadi's camp for using his residence as a
temporary headquarters.

The government and the military have said that the new party
board elected by the congress represented the lawful leadership
and have barred Megawati's faction from taking part in next
year's general elections.

The faction supporting Megawati has been holding on to the
party's national headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central
Jakarta. Meanwhile, Soerjadi and his camp have set up a temporary
headquarters at his official residence on Jl. Denpasar Raya in
South Jakarta. (imn)