Manado dressed in red and yellow

Manado dressed in red and yellow

MANADO, North Sulawesi: Despite a year to go before the general
elections, political parties in the provincial capital of Manado
have already begun to fly their flags.

Supporters of the two top parties in the 1999 election, the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the
Golkar party, are vying to place their respective party colors of
red and yellow at various locations.

On Wednesday, banners and posters fringed Manado's roads.
Leaders of the parties' provincial chapters said they had not
asked for the banners to be erected.

"... it was a spontaneous public act and was driven purely by
their love of our party," Manado Golkar chapter head Rimba Rogi
said.

North Sulawesi General Elections Commission (KPU) secretary
Max Lumintang said the advertising was within the limits of the
campaign regulations.

If supporters overdid it the KPU would file a complaint with
the parties, he said. -- Antara