Legislative candidate lists give rise to clash, protests
ID Nugroho and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya/Medan
A clash broke out among rival political party members on Monday in Banyuwangi while a protest occurred in Surabaya and Medan only a couple of weeks after the General Elections Commission (KPU) accepted the lists of legislative candidates nationwide.
The clash happened among rival members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) in front of the party's Banyuwangi headquarters on Jl. Jaksa Agung Suprapto in the East Java regency.
One person was hit by shards of glass from broken car windows and several others were injured in the incident.
The clash began at 8 a.m., when hundreds staged a protest in front of the Banyuwangi headquarters.
They demanded a change in the list of legislative candidates issued by the party's Banyuwangi central board of executives, which they said did not represent the aspirations of PDI Perjuangan members in the regency.
"(The protesters) were from groups led by Suwandoko and Imam Sudjono," said Bambang, coordinator of the party's task force that safeguards headquarters.
The protesters pushed back dozens of task force members and into the headquarters, trying to occupy it. The protest turned violent, with the two sides coming to blows.
Eventually, the task force security members drove back the protesters and out of headquarters.
A passing car was damaged in the clash when an unknown party threw a stone through one of its windows. Glass shards hit Bibit, a local PDI Perjuangan member, who suffered minor injuries, and was taken into headquarters for treatment.
Separately in the East Java capital of Surabaya, dozens of Golkar Party members from 29 local districts staged a protest at Golkar East Java headquarters on Jl. Adityawarman.
They were also expressing disappointment over the party's legislative candidates, saying the provincial party chapter had failed to include their favorite local politicians on the list of candidates.
Meanwhile in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, some 60 members of PDI Perjuangan protested against the North Sumatra KPU for being discriminative in its approval of the party's list of legislative candidates.
The protesters lashed out at the provincial KPU, which had rejected the list of legislative candidates filed by Doni Arsal, former chairman of the party's North Sumatra chapter, and instead accepted the list of legislative candidates from Usaha Ginting, the new chairman.
The party members, apparently from Doni's camp, protested the decision because Ginting chairmanship had yet to be recognized by the party's central board in Jakarta.
A source at the local KPU said that the commission was confused at first as to whether they were to accept the list from Usaha Ginting. Upon contacting PDI Perjuangan's central board, however, the KPU received confirmation that the central board only recognized Ginting as chairman, and so proceeded with his list of candidates.