Aceh elections bring windfall to Medan

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 11/27/2006 12:40 PM

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

With campaigning for the Aceh elections now in full gear, advertising businesses in Medan, North Sumatra, are enjoying brisk orders for publicity materials.

Five workers at Mergraha advertising enterprise in Medan were busy finishing purchase orders on Friday for 200 banners ordered by a pair of candidates contesting the East Aceh regency election.

The young and skillful workers seemed eager to finish the job fast.

One by one they painted each of the eight-meter-long banners with various campaign slogans and the candidates's faces in the left-hand corner.

Megraha's Beak Solin, 22, said it was not the first banner order he company had received from Aceh candidates.

He said that a number of candidates from various regencies in Aceh had placed orders for banners, billboards and T-shirts before.

""Orders for election campaign materials have increased by up to 70 percent in the past month. Most of the orders came from candidates from Aceh Singkil, Southeast Aceh, North Aceh and East Aceh regencies, but none from gubernatorial candidates,"" said Solin.

Solin said it was unclear why many Aceh regency candidates had placed orders for election campaign materials in Medan given that there were companies in Aceh that could have produced them.

""Whatever the reason, it's a windfall for us. We seldom experience this, especially orders coming in from Aceh ... it's beyond our expectations,"" said Solin.

He said it was the first time sales had increased dramatically in his seven years working for the company. He said purchase orders were even higher than they were during the election in Medan last year.

An advertising entrepreneur in Medan, Faisal Hamzah, said he was also doing well thanks to the Aceh elections.

He said two regent hopefuls from East Aceh and North Aceh placed orders for 350 banners and 100 billboards three weeks ago, at Rp 100,000 (US$11) for each banner and Rp 150,000 per meter for the billboards.

A resident of Simpang Kiri district in Aceh Singkil regency, Anif Graha, 24, said one of the reasons Aceh election candidates had ordered campaign materials from Medan was because the prices were lower.

He said a banner that cost Rp 100,000 in Medan would be priced at Rp 120,000 in Aceh Singkil.

Besides the price factor, Anif said that the quality of workmanship also differed because advertising workers in Medan were more skilled than those in Aceh Singkil.

""These are the factors which prompted us to order election campaign materials in Medan,"" said Anif when he took his order of 200 banners, 30 billboards and 4,500 T-shirts from Mergraha Advertising in Medan for one of the Aceh Singkil regental candidates.

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