Parties gears up for election campaign opener

Parties gears up for election campaign opener

JAKARTA (JP): Top figures of the three political parties will
begin campaigning in different areas throughout the country
Sunday, with Golkar parading its trump cards.

Golkar chairman Harmoko is due to deliver a speech in Lebak, a
small town in West Java about 100 kilometers west of here.

A thousand miles away in Medan, North Sumatra, chairman of the
United Development Party (PPP) Ismail Hasan Metareum will take to
the stage to mark the opening of the party's election campaign.

The conflict-ridden Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) will
begin its campaign with a public rally in Pontianak, West
Kalimantan, featuring its chairman Soerjadi.

An election campaign itinerary will be announced today.

The nationwide campaign period will end on May 23, giving
Golkar, the PPP and the PDI 27 days to offer their respective
programs.

Members of the Golkar board of patrons, who are also cabinet
ministers, are expected to accompany Harmoko in opening the
campaign.

Wardiman Djojonegoro, currently Minister of Education and
Culture, is set to team up with the State Minister of Development
Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita.

Fellow cabinet ministers, the Coordinating Minister for
Production and Distribution Hartarto and Minister of Youth
Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman, will make a trip to Central
Java.

The Minister of Agrarian Affairs Sony Harsono will speak in
Yogyakarta, the Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications
Joop Ave will visit Maluku while the minister of administrative
reforms will tour the country's easternmost province Irian Jaya.

Former vice president and Golkar chairman Sudharmono and
fellow senior Golkar figure Suhardiman will support Hartarto in
Central Java.

Harmoko, who has made an across-the-archipelago trip during
fasting month a tradition since he took office in 1983, will fly
to Lhokseumawe, Aceh on Monday.

The General Election Institute has introduced the zoning
system in this year's election, the seventh held since
independence. Each political party is obliged to conduct its
campaign in two specially designated regions each day.

This allows a political group to hold two campaigns in
different towns on the same day.

The regulation divides the country into six campaign regions:
region I is for provinces in Sumatra; region II for provinces in
Java; region III for provinces in Bali, West and East Nusa
Tenggara and East Timor; region IV for provinces in Kalimantan;
region V for provinces in Sulawesi; and region VI for the
provinces of Maluku and Irian Jaya.

The zoning aims to prevent supporters of one political group
from encountering another, thereby reducing the potential for
conflict.

Meanwhile, the ousted chief of PDI, Megawati Soekarnoputri,
said in a statement yesterday that her camp will not participate
in any election campaign activities.

She said her camp had "in a responsible manner" followed all
preparatory stages of general elections, including naming its
legislature candidates, which the election organizer rejected.

"We all have to keep fighting together for a democratic and
constitutional elections," she said. (amd)