Regional candidates square off in poster war
The Jakarta Post, Bandung/Semarang/Palu
Most regional representative candidates have been involved in a poster war rather than promoting their platforms to seek support for their candidacy in the legislative election.
Out of 40 regional representative candidates in West Java, only former energy and mineral resources minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita has mobilized people to garner support.
Ginandjar, who was implicated in several corruption cases during his term in office, deployed on Saturday hundreds of people to form a political convoy covered in posters to distribute pamphlets seeking support for his candidacy.
Other candidates have displayed posters and distributed pamphlets in public places to introduce themselves to eligible voters.
Most regional representative candidates in Central Java have also done the same thing. Due to a lack of funds, regional representatives have no special programs to lure supporters. As a result, most voters are uninformed about the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).
According to the amended 1945 Constitution, the DPD will work with the House of Representatives to make laws and discuss regional issues.
Each of the 32 provinces will elect four regional representatives to represent them in the legislature.
Regional representative candidates are expected to promote their own programs to channel the province's political and regional interests and specific development programs.
Djawahir Mohammad, a regional representative from Central Java, has recruited his own wife and two children to promote him in the legislative election.
Besides circulating Djawahir's posters and pamphlets in crowded places in the city and rural areas, his two children, both physicians, are giving free treatment to patients who support their father's candidacy.
Budi Santoso, owner of Suara Merdeka daily in Semarang, has deployed the daily's journalists to circulate his posters and pamphlets in public places in the province to win support for his candidacy.
"My strength lies in my journalists, plus I have been campaigning through my newspaper," he said, adding that he had also visited several Islamic boarding schools and influential clerics to win their support.
He said he had placed more than one million posters and pamphlets in strategic places, including public places, along crowded roads, markets and village buildings in the province.
Ichsan Loulembah, a regional representative from Central Sulawesi, set a good example when he held a political rally in an open field in the provincial capital of Palu on Saturday.
During the rally, Ichsan outlined several programs he had devised to accelerate the province's economy and to introduce the province's rich culture to other countries.
Twenty-five local politicians are promoting their candidacy in the regional representative election in the province.