PPP retracts support for indoor election campaign

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)