Mega heads to Bali amid Cabinet storm

Mega heads to Bali amid Cabinet storm

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri is slated to address supporters
of her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in Bali on
Friday amid criticism that she may be violating the election law
for campaigning without taking official time off.

State Secretary Bambang Kesowo said on Thursday that Megawati
would have 11 days of campaigning and Vice President Hamzah Haz
10 days, but neither would actually request a leave of absence to
attend to their party business.

"The President and Vice President will not take time off for
campaigning, but nevertheless, all state duties will proceed as
usual," Bambang explained to the public.

Hamzah, who is also chairman of the Muslim-based United
Development Party (PPP), addressed his supporters in Madura, East
Java on Thursday, also without requesting a leave of absence.

Bambang claimed that there were no regulations on the
procedure for a president or a vice president to request leave.

Law No. 12/2003 on General Election, however, clearly
stipulates that state officials who are members of political
parties, including the president and vice president, must request
time off without pay during the campaign period.

Indonesia will hold the legislative election on April 5, with
the official campaign period slated for March 11 through April 1.

The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) had earlier
warned that they would take action against any parties that
violated the election law.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) confirmed on Thursday
that they had received campaign schedules for the President and
Vice President from Bambang late on Tuesday.

KPU member Hamid Awaluddin, chairman of the electoral campaign
working committee, said the KPU would ignore Bambang's public
statement, in which he said the president would not request a
leave of absence without pay for campaigning.

"We have only received an official letter from the State
Secretary, thus we will only refer to the letter," Hamid told
reporters.

He added that KPU would not take the matter up further with
Bambang until, or unless, the latter revised his letter.

The letter states that eight of 11 campaign days for Megawati
were working days, and so she would request leave for eight days.

Hamzah would take time off without pay for seven of his 10
scheduled campaign days.

In addition to campaigning in Bali, Megawati was also slated
to stump in East Nusa Tenggara, Riau, North and South Sumatra,
Lampung, West Sumatra, Central Java, North Sulawesi, Papua,
Maluku, East Java, West Java, Central Kalimantan and South
Sulawesi.

Bambang also disclosed on Thursday that 10 ministers,
including Coordinating Minister for Political and Security
Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (who quit over a rift with
Megawati on Thursday morning), had requested a leave of absence
to campaign for their respective parties.

Each minister will have a maximum of two work days off for
campaigning.

Four ministers, although registered with the General Election
Commission (KPU) as campaigners, recently decided not to
participate in any campaigns.

They are Minister of Regional Infrastructure and Resettlement
Soenarno, State Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah,
State Minister of State-owned Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi and
National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Hendropriyono.