PPP protests ruling on ID stickers for campaigs
PPP protests ruling on ID stickers for campaigs
JAKARTA (JP): An executive of the United Development Party's
(PPP) city chapter has protested the rule to issue stickers
restricting the movement of party members' cars in Greater
Jakarta.
Djafar Badjeber, who is heading the chapter's campaign, said
yesterday the rule would make it hard for supporters to travel to
campaign venues.
"There are already too many campaign regulations and the
compulsory stickers will cause the party more problems.
"The city chapter's activists are already confused by the many
rules, let alone the grass-root supporters," Djafar said.
He said he wondered why the government had backtracked on
democratization after encouraging it five years ago.
Pos Kota reported yesterday that PPP city chairman Rusjdi
Hamka had said the regulations on stickers should be reviewed.
Rule
On Tuesday, City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang
announced the rule that cars belonging to members of the parties
would be restricted to one of eight areas of Greater Jakarta
according to the code number on stickers. The stickers will be
the colors of particular parties and contain area code numbers.
The head of the Golkar city chapter, Tadjus Sobirin, has said
his chapter accepts the rule "to ensure the campaign period will
run smoothly".
The chairman of the city branch of the Indonesian Democratic
Party (PDI), Lukman F. Mokoginta,. said he agreed with the rule
so long as the police distributed the stickers fairly.
"We won't object to the compulsory stickers as long as the
police don't complicate procedures to get permits," Lukman said.
Aritonang said the compulsory stickers were green for the
Moslem-based PPP, yellow for the dominant Golkar and red for the
PDI.
Central Jakarta will be code one, North Jakarta code two, West
Jakarta code three, South Jakarta code four, East Jakarta code
five, Tangerang code six, Bekasi code seven and Depok code eight.
The 27-day campaign period will start April 27 and end May 23.
It will be followed by a four day cooling-off period before the
May 29 general election. (11)