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Central Java gubernatorial pairs violate campaign rules
Only four days into the governor election campaign, the Central Java election supervisory committee has identified a number of violations allegedly involving candidates and their campaign teams
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Only four days into the governor election campaign, the Central Java election supervisory committee has identified a number of violations allegedly involving candidates and their campaign teams.
Chairman of the election supervisory committee (Panwaslih) Sriyanto Saputro said Monday the violations included "money politics" -- buying constituents' votes, the misuse of state facilities and recruiting children to help with campaign activities.
Sriyanto said the committee was recording which governor hopefuls and their campaign teams were not complying with the campaign schedule, which presented a threat to a peaceful and fair election.
"We demand the provincial general election committee (KPUD) ask all campaign participants to stick to the schedule," Sriyanto said.
Five pairs of candidates, all nominated by political parties, are contending the race. They are Bibit Waluyo and his running mate Rustriningsih, Muhammad Tamzil and his running mate Abdul Rozak Rais, Bambang Sadono and his running mate Muhammad Adnan, Agus Soeyitno and Kholiq Arif and Sukawi Sutarip and his running mate Sudharto.
The Bibit-Rustrining pair, nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), has promised to develop the agriculture sector to improve social welfare.
"If the villages are prosperous, the country will follow suit. A majority of people in the province are living in rural areas," Bibit said.
Tamzil and Abdul Rozak, nominated by a coalition of the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), also vowed to pay more attention to farmers and fishermen.
Tamzil said he would allocate Rp 200 billion to reduce unemployment and poverty in the province.
Bambang and Adnan, who were nominated by the Golkar Party, campaigned for poverty eradication, environmental conservation, free education and good governance.
Agus also campaigned for free education, cheap health care and good governance, while Sukawi, nominated by the coalition of the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), placed strong emphasis on improving human resources to allow the province to become globally competitive.
Political observer Rubiyanto Misman said poverty was the "sexy issue to sell" during the political campaign. About 20 percent of Central Java's population of 33 million are living in poverty.
The former rector of Semarang-based Diponegoro University Eko Budiharjo said political promises meant nothing if they were not implemented in concrete programs.
"It will be better if hopefuls make political contracts with their constituents to step down if they make empty promises and do not offer concrete action, especially in the first 100 days in tenure," Eko said.
Many believe that candidates nominated by PDI-P and Golkar, which occupy a majority of seats in the provincial and regency legislatures, have a high chance of winning the election.
PDI-P won almost 30 percent of the vote, or 32 seats in the 100-member provincial legislature council, while Golkar won slightly above 16 percent of votes, or 18 seats.
The numbers do not appear to have affected the optimism of the other candidates.
"For us, political parties are just a entrance gate. It's up to eligible voters to cast their votes to those who they want to lead the province," Sukawi Sutarip said.
Some 25 million eligible voters are expected to participate in the election scheduled for June 22.
