Medan 'election canteens' making huge profits

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

The owners of several eateries in Medan have turned their premises into 'election canteens', a move they say is drawing in extra customers three weeks before the city's direct mayoral elections.

The marketing gimmick was putting bums on seats and selling more meals, said Suwondo, who for two weeks has decorated his canteen with banners and posters supporting the election of two candidates, Abdillah and Ramli.

"During normal days, I only make about Rp 150,000 profit a day. But since I've turned my shop into an 'election canteen', I can earn up to Rp 350,000 a day," Suwondo said.

Juices selling at Rp 4,000 a glass, were the most popular item sold, with the canteen selling about 75 glasses a day, he said. Most of the people attracted to the shop were related to the Abdillah-Ramli campaign team or were interested members of the public, he said.

"The customers prefer to drink as they mostly come here to sit and hear people debating politics, or listen to or plan the preparations of Abdillah and Ramli ahead of the mayoral elections."

While placing banners, posters and other election materials up in his shop was free advertising for the candidates, Suwondo said he received no money from the team.

The campaign materials were cleared few days ago by the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), more than a week before the campaign period officially started on June 10.

"They know that the canteen has become a hang-out for Abdillah and Ramli supporters," Suwondo said.

Supporters of candidate pair Maulana Pohan and Sigit Pramono Asri have also established an "election canteen" also with the eventual consent of the Panwaslu.

Batara, the owner of a shop on Jl. Sisingamangaraja, has turned his shop into an "Information Service Post for Maulana and Sigit Supporters", as the banner on the roof reads.

"The sale of food and drinks is on the rise as many more people come into the canteen to discuss politics and plan strategy to help the pair win the election," Batara said.

The evenings were the busiest, Batara said, with some patrons staying to talk about politics until 2 a.m.

Maulana-Sigit campaign manager Ikrimah said the team had distributed more than 300 banners to eateries in the city, including Batara's shop.

The establishment of the election canteens were the owners' initiative and they received no money for doing so, Ikrimah said.

Abdillah-Ramli campaign manager Harmen Ginting said the increased custom was reason enough for owners of eateries to brand their shop houses with election materials.

"We never mobilized them -- they requested the election materials from us. We have certainly helped them," he said.

Many other ethnic organizations and workers' groups had also come out officially in support of certain candidates, Harmen said, with "about 50" backing Abdillah-Ramli.

Only two candidate pairs are contesting the direct elections, Abdillah-Ramli -- nominated by eight major political parties including the Golkar Party the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Democratic Party -- and Maulana-Sigit, running for the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).