Parties to encourage members to register for election soon

JAKARTA (JP): Executives of provincial chapters of several major political parties in the capital insisted on Tuesday that they would directly encourage their cadres here to voluntarily register for the upcoming June 7 general election as soon as possible.

Contacted separately by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, senior executives of Jakarta chapters of the Justice and Unity Party (PKP), the New Indonesian Party (PIB), the United Party (PP) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) said that such active participation of the party's executives and board members was badly needed due to the sluggish response of city residents to register for the election.

According to head of PP Jakarta chapter Muhammad Banang, all political parties, including PP, should work harder to encourage people to participate in the poll, in which the competition would be much tighter than before due to the huge number of the contestants.

"Moreover, it's the parties which need the people's votes," Banang said.

His party, he said, has instructed its 22 local executives here to accompany Jakartans, in particular PP devotees, for the registration process.

Banang strongly denied the possibility of the political parties to practice money politics while escorting the people to the registration points.

"It's only a registration process. Thus, no one could guarantee that these people will automatically vote for us, they why should we give them money for the registration?" he asked.

Head of PKP Jakarta chapter Subagyo said all cadres of his party in the city have been encouraged to voluntarily register for the poll which is one of the party's pre-election programs.

"Our cadres are also instructed to actively motivate other people in any occasion and at any places to go to the registration points for the election," Subagyo said.

He added that he strongly believed that people participation in the upcoming election would be much lower compared to the previous 1997 poll as people, particularly Jakartans, still focused on how to survive in this prolonged economic crisis.

In the last poll, he said, about 11.92 percent out of 5.6 million eligible voters in the city did not vote.

The June election this year has been estimated to be participated in by some 5.8 million voters of Jakarta.

Until the second day of the eight-day registration period on Tuesday, only a very few Jakartans were seen to register for the poll.

Door-to-door

According to Subagyo, should his party's approach still bore negative results, PKP would form a special team with the help of registration officials to directly visit any Jakartans eligible to vote.

"I think all political parties should also do the same thing (door-to-door visit) as people's participation in the upcoming poll is desperately needed to determine the country's future," he said.

Secretary of PIB Jakarta chapter Syaiful Anwar said that his Islamic-based political party have already started encouraging people to join the registration process through mosques and other religious gatherings.

Head of PAN Jakarta chapter's research and development department, Amir Hamzah said that his party would even establish groups of PAN cadres to safeguard registration places from any possible clashes between parties' followers.

"The groups hopefully will help smoothen the registration process such as to avoid people mocking at each other while registering themselves," Amir said.

From Bogor, south of here, an official at the local social and political office said on Tuesday that the vote registration period would be started sometime next week due to the lack of preparation.

"The District Poll Committee (PPK) has not yet been established, let alone the Subdistrict Poll Committee (PPS)," he said.

According to deputy secretary of Bogor Elections Committee Irfan Maulidi, the PPK would be set up on Thursday and PPS two days later.

"I'll propose that the vote registration to be conducted starting on Sunday although it's a holiday due to the limited time," he said.

The same news with the same reasons also came from Tangerang, west of here. (ind/24/41)