Panwaslu says campaign still on track
Panwaslu says campaign still on track
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) has recorded a
number of violations during the four-day-old campaign, most of
which are minor ones, an official says.
"Of course there have been violations here and there,
including some serious ones," said Saut H. Sirait, Panwaslu
deputy chairman, on Sunday without giving exact figures.
He explained that most violations involved the installing of
flags at prohibited locations, fighting among party supporters
over sites at which to raise party flags and taking children to
campaign sites.
In Yogyakarta, the local General Elections Committee (KPUD)
sent a warning letter to the United Development Party (PPP) after
some of its supporters stabbed a motorist on a road where
campaign convoys were prohibited.
Police in Ambon, Maluku, reported earlier that 18 Golkar flags
had been set alight by unidentified people on Thursday, the first
day of campaigning.
Saut said the local Panwaslu would notify local KPUDs if it
found campaign violations. If a case was considered a crime, it
would be reported to the police.
Last Saturday, local Panwaslu officials in Jambi removed about
1,000 flags that had been erected in prohibited locations.
KPUDs have assigned locations where political parties may
raise flags and streets on which convoys may pass.
On Sunday, the South Sumatra Panwaslu office reiterated its
calls for party supporters not to take children to campaign sites
for security reasons, Antara reported.
A day before, Panwaslu found that some Indonesia Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI-P) supporters took along their children to
a campaign session featuring party leader Megawati Soekarnoputri.
A four-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl were hospitalized
after a stage collapsed at the site.
"It's a clear-cut violation. Children might get hurt in
unpredictable situations," said Nurcholis, deputy head of the
local Panwaslu office.
He said his office had warned the party and should the party
violate the rule again, it might be banned from campaigning in
the province as it violated KPU regulation No. 701/2003.
Separately in Jakarta, the Indonesia Unity Party (PSI) accused
the KPU and Panwaslu of failing to take firm action against big
political parties violating election regulations.
PSI leader Rahardjo Tjakraningrat warned that it might set a
bad precedent for a safe and peaceful campaign period.
He was referring to the multiparty parade on the first day of
campaigning on Thursday, when the PDI-P deployed many vehicles,
including trucks, to travel across the city despite the KPU
setting a limit of six vehicles per party.