PPP retracts support for indoor election campaign

UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) has wavered in its earlier enthusiasm for the proposed Golkar-sponsored introduction of indoor discussions in the 1997 election campaign, saying it wished to maintain outdoor mass rallies.

"We haven't made up our minds (whether to accept) indoor discussions (as the sole method for electioneering)," chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum said here on Tuesday after opening a meeting of PPP chapters in eastern Indonesia.

Ismail said the party supports indoor rallies, as long as the traditional outdoor mass rallies are still maintained. "I have told President Soeharto that PPP agrees to the dialogs, but outdoor rallies should not be abandoned altogether," he said.

President Soeharto last month commissioned the National Council for Defense and Security to come up with methods of campaigning that are less likely to lead to the security disturbances and disorderliness normally associated with outdoor mass rallies.

Soeharto asked the council to draft the election campaign regulations in time for the campaign period which is slated for a month beginning at the end of next April.

Election campaigns in 1992 were dominated by mass rallies held outdoors, sometimes involving long motorcades taking campaigners and their supporters to the venues. TV ads were also employed in a limited way but they were not deemed effective in communicating with voters.

Golkar has suggested that the mass rallies be replaced by indoor discussions, allowing candidates to meet and discuss various issues with potential voters. It stressed that these gatherings would be preferable to a forum where representatives of the three contestants are put in one room to debate election issues before a large crowd.

Ismail pointed out that such session may not be for everybody. "Only intelligent people can engage in dialogs... holding dialogs with rural people will have to be done differently than when you're holding dialogs with urban people," he said.

"So, if we really want to reach out to our supporters, then the previous methods of campaign should still be conducted," he said. (34/swe)