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