Wiranto told to fight for more support

JAKARTA: Despite the fact that Gen. (ret) Wiranto enjoys massive support at the regency level, he will not automatically make it to the last five presidential candidates Golkar plans to choose later this month, a Golkar leader says.

Golkar convention secretary Andi Mattalatta said Tuesday that a candidate had to be supported by five provincial Golkar chapters in order to contest the next presidential selection round.

Andi was commenting on a recent survey suggesting that Wiranto was supported by 99 regental chapters, 95 of which put the former military chief at the top of their lists.

Golkar regental chapters have to select five of 19 candidates to be submitted to the provincial chapters.

Golkar is expected to announce its five candidates on Oct. 21 when its provincial chapters submit their respective presidential nominees to the party convention committee. -- JP

;JP;JUN; ANPAa..r.. Scene-ambassador-milk U.S. gives milk to elementary students JP/4/MILK

U.S. gives milk to elementary students

JAKARTA: U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce celebrated the World School Milk Day with students and teachers of state-run Gondangdia Elementary School in Menteng, Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

After donating 168 packs of milk, Boyce talked to the students, who mostly come from poor families, on the importance of drinking milk.

The students were among 550,000 elementary students across the country who received milk under the Milk for School Health Efforts (UKS) program, this year.

Boyce said his government had agreed to provide US$15 million annually to support education in private and public schools in Indonesia. -- JP

;JP;IWA; ANPAa..r.. Firms-bid-tender Nine firms join KPU's IT tender JP/4/scene3

Nine firms join KPU's IT tender

JAKARTA: Nine companies and consortium submitted on Tuesday their bids with the General Elections Commission (KPU) on a renewed tender to provide Information Technology (IT) infrastructure for next year's general elections.

The nine firms and consortium are PT Berca Hardaya Perkasa, PT Integrasi Teknologi, PT Bringin Gigantara, PT Multi Polar, PT Asaba Computer Center, PT Adhisakti Solusi Komputindo, PT Texacom Hitek System, PT Swadharma Duta Data, and PT Anabatic Teknologi.

Three companies/consortium withdrew their participation in the tender, including PT Pernadi Wiraperkasa, which qualified in the earlier bid.

KPU annulled last Thursday the previous tender, which was supposed to hear the announcement of the winners, due to technical and procedural problems.

A member of KPU IT infrastructure tender team Dalail said the next phase of the IT infrastructure tender would be to announce several winning candidates on Oct. 13. --JP