Parties try new ways to attract voters

SEMARANG: As the final days of campaigning draw near, political parties in Semarang held a variety of different activities to woo voters on Saturday.

The Freedom Bull National Party (PNBK) held a mass prayer in the suburb of Gemah in order to ask God for safety and victory in the upcoming election.

Meanwhile, the National Mandate Party (PAN) held an indoor meeting -- to announce details of more campaigning. PAN's Semarang branch leader Ghozy Achmad Dahlan, said the party would pull out the stops on April 1, the last day public campaigning is allowed before the general elections.

On that day, the PAN's Semarang branch would host party leader Amien Rais in a rally held at the Bangetayu field in Genuk.

Meanwhile, officials from the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) helped fumigation efforts to eradicate aedes aegepty mosquitoes, the carriers of dengue fever, in the Gadjah Mungkur area here.

"We are doing our part to prevent further dengue outbreaks in the city," said Onnie Azis Tiono, the head of the PKPI's Semarang branch. -- JP