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)