Regional candidates square off in poster war
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.