Increased interest in legislature

TANGERANG (JP): An increasing number of people are interested in applying for legislative positions, as reflected by the fact that as of Monday, 425 people had applied to the Tangerang District Court for documents certifying they have no criminal record.

Ansyori Thoyib, secretary of the court, said: "The documents will be used by the applicants to propose themselves as candidates for legislative councils at the central, provincial, mayoralty and regency levels."

"Most applicants come from only eight of the 48 parties eligible to contest the next general election," he said, adding that the eight parties included the National Mandate Party, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and Golkar.

Meanwhile, Tangerang Regent Agus Djunara handed over Rp 10 million on Monday for the operational costs of the elections to representatives of 42 parties.

"The money is expected to be utilized as effectively as possible so as to help make the elections a success," Agus said.

The regent earlier gave Rp 150 million assistance to the Regional Elections Committee to help finance the committee's activities.

Agus said that out of the 2.1 million eligible voters in the regency, 1.6 million had registered. (41/hhr)