Police start training for elections

JAKARTA: The Jakarta Police began a two-day training program on Wednesday for 90,000 city-employed community unit guards on how to handle possible disturbances at polling booths leading up to the general elections.

"This is to show community unit guards how to handle troublemakers in the field. Instructors will be sent to each district to explain the procedures and train the guards," said Jakarta Police general crimes chief Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang.

Each police subprecinct chief will be responsible for the training programs and will be assisted by instructors from the city police.

"We will continue with the training on Friday (after Thursday's national holiday) and hope they can master the procedure by the end of the day," Salempang said.

There will be 44,792 polling booths in Jakarta and each booth will be guarded by two community unit guards. The police said earlier they had prepared 11,499 personnel to secure the general elections in Greater Jakarta. -- JP