Followers told to stop "bloodshed"

SURABAYA: Presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri urged her followers on Wednesday to stop giving their thumbprints in blood, saying that the act could lead to violence.

"If they really support me, they should stop this and use their energies in other sympathetic action," Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary-general Sutjipto quoted Megawati as saying.

The followers of Megawati, who is also the PDI-P chairwoman, shed blood symbolically after Muslim clerics in East Java issued an edict that prohibited Muslims from voting for female candidates. -- JP