Voting booths must be placed outside office complexes

JAKARTA (JP): The city's General Elections Committee has banned government offices from constructing polling booths inside office building compounds.

In the last general election, in 1992, polling stations were also banned from government office compounds.

The city's committee found eight offices had violated the rule and ordered local officials to remove them.

An official at the city's directorate of social and political affairs in charge of this year's election said yesterday voting booths should be built outside government office and state school building complexes.

Data from the city's General Elections Committee revealed that 12,496 polling stations would be built. Of them 10,478 stations would be in residential areas, 1,965 near government office buildings and 53 would be mobile stations.

Mobile stations are for voters in hospitals and detention centers.

The source, who requested anonymity, said traffic rerouting during the campaign period was still being discussed by the committee and City Police Headquarters.

The nationwide campaign period of 27 days will be from April 27 to May 23. There will be a four-day cooling off period from May 24 to May 28 before the election on May 29.

The source said the committee would further discuss campaign sites.

He declined to say if the City anticipated that some areas would be riot-prone during the campaign.

The city's general elections committee and the three contestants have agreed that the dominant Golkar party will be the first to campaign. Contestants will campaign every three days.

Agreement

The agreement says each contestant is entitled to nine rounds in the campaign period.

Golkar will campaign on April 27, April 30, May 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 and May 21.

The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) will campaign on April 28, May 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 and May 22. The United Development Party (PPP), on April 29, May 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20 and May 23.

The agreement was signed Friday by Lukman F. Mokoginta of PDI, Rusjdi Hamka of PPP, Fattomy Ansaary of Golkar, and Bagus Suharyono, who heads the city's social and political affairs directorate.

On April 27 between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. task forces of all three contestants must simultaneously install their campaign aids along the city's main streets such as Jl. Imam Bonjol, Jl. M.H Thamrin, Jl. Diponegoro and at the National Monument square.

Contestants can then place their campaign aids in other areas across the city from 12 midnight to 6 a.m.

The nine campaign rounds are for mass gatherings between campaigners and supporters. These will be divided into four rounds in subdistricts, three for district levels and the other two for mayoralty levels.

Contestants must stick to the campaign schedules.

From 6 a.m. to 9 a.m contestants can place placards, banners and flags within a radius 500 meters from their campaign site.

Campaigns were scheduled from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., after which contestants must clear up campaign aids from 6 to 10 p.m.

In the cooling period from May 24 to May 28, all contestants must clear up their campaign aids. On May 29 a registered 7,453,416 Jakartans are entitled to vote. Ballot counting will be conducted from May 30 to June 17. (11)