Yogyakarta sets goal of peaceful campaign for general elections

Slamet Susanto ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Yogyakarta   |  Wed, 07/09/2008 10:48 AM  |  The Archipelago

The long election campaign leading up to next year's general elections will be a peaceful one, if the Yogyakarta chapter of the General Elections Commission (KPUD) has its way.

The KPUD will publicly declare its goal of a peaceful election campaign when the period kicks off on July 12, and is calling on the public and members of political parties running in the elections to support its goal.

To achieve this goal, the commission is encouraging all parties to make an official agreement to conduct a peaceful campaign. Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X will make a speech to this effect Thursday.

The KPUD is working with related institutions, such as the police, public order officers and public figures, to help bring about a peaceful and safe election.

KPUD chairman Suparman Marzuki said he was optimistic the election would run smoothly as people in Yogyakarta already had high political awareness.

"I am sure the presidential election will run as well as expected and people here can avoid and overcome any conflicts, just like in the previous election," he said.

But the KPUD still faces two serious problems ahead of the campaign period -- the absence of campaign technical guidelines from the central KPU and the delay in the formation of the General Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) due to funding shortages.

"Even though we have not received the guidelines yet, the commission has disseminated information about the campaign based on the 2004 presidential election technical guidelines. We did so to encourage eligible voters to exercise their right," Suparman said.

Thirteen of the 33 political parties in Yogyakarta that applied to take part in the 2009 elections passed the verification process in the province and their details were passed on to the central KPU.

Most of the candidates who took a registration form to become members of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) are members of political parties, including Soetarjo Soeryo Guritno from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Afnan Hadi Kusumo from the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Kholid Muachmud from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

However, only one of the 30 candidates who took the form returned it -- the wife of the Yogyakarta governor, GKR Hemas.

The DPD is the upper house of the two parliamentary chambers in Indonesia. The DPD was created by the third amendment to the 1945 Constitution, enacted Nov. 9, 2001, in a move toward bicameralism.

To register as DPD members, the candidates have to collect support from 2,000 constituents, to be proved with copies of their ID cards.

To avoid any violations, KPUD will verify all ID cards that are collected by the candidates.

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