Party symbols remain in place

Party symbols remain in place

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the fact that the cooling-off period following the
official election campaign was supposed to mean the ridding of
the city of election posters and banners, many areas of the city
were still awash with them on Friday.

There was hardly any sign of party workers removing the flags,
posters, banners and stickers that they had erected or plastered
so enthusiastically all along the city's main streets at the
outset of the campaign.

Instead it fell to thousands of city employees to roll up
their sleeves and get down to the nitty-gritty of removing the
disfiguring campaign materials from the walls of flyovers,
pedestrian bridges, bus shelters and just about every other
available space.

The cleanup began at midnight on Friday after Deputy Governor
Fauzi Bowo symbolically lowered the flags of the 24 political
parties that had been flying at City Hall since March 11.

Among the election materials still in evidence in the city
were giant banners touting the merits of candidates for the City
Council, House of Representatives and the Regional
Representatives Council.

Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) Directive
No. 12/2004 gives parties and candidates the opportunity to
remove their own promotional materials following the 22-day
campaign period.

"We will give the candidates the chance to remove their own
stuff from the streets from 12 p.m. on Thursday to 6 p.m. on
Friday. After that, we will deploy our own people to remove the
campaign materials," KPU Jakarta chairman Muhamad Taufik told The
Jakarta Post on Friday.

Large quantities of promotional materials were still to be
found in residential areas around the city.

In Setiabudi district, South Jakarta, there were still several
large banners for the United Development Party (PPP). The same
applied in a number of places in Ciputat, Tangerang.

On Jl. Kelapa Dua Wetan, East Jakarta, a large mock bull
erected by workers for the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI-P) was still standing tall by the roadside, Antara
reported.

Taufik stressed that all party attributes had to be totally
removed from public places by Sunday.