Uphold election rules: Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto called on the public yesterday to stick to the rules of the game in the 1997 general election.

Only if everybody follows the rules will the upcoming election proceed peacefully, the president said, addressing the annual three-day conference of the Information Ministry.

"I would like to use this occasion to urge all government officials, contestants and the public to make the 1997 election a success," the President said.

The President said that people will go to polling stations and cast their ballots only if the election is peaceful.

Three political organizations, Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), will take part in the election.

They will contest 425 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives. The 75 remaining seats are reserved for the Armed Forces, which do not take part in the election.

The general election will be followed by the presidential election in March 1998 by the 1,000 member People's Consultative Assembly, which consists of all 500 House members, representatives of the bureaucracy and major organizations.

Soeharto said the election, the fifth in his 30-year reign, is not only a process to elect new House members.

"It is also a forum to push democracy ahead," he said. "Our success in development is not measured by economic success but also by our democracy," he said.

Four hundred and sixty-three officials of the information ministry attended the conference. The President asked them to prepare the information campaign for the upcoming election.

"The campaign should focus on improving the public's political awareness for a better implementation of the general election. (pan)