Civil servants briefed on elections

DENPASAR: The Denpasar General Elections Commission (KPUD) held a training course here Friday for all municipality civil servants about the stages of next year's general elections.

Nyoman Aryana, city administration secretary, who was present at the seminar, reminded the civil servants not to get directly involved in political activities.

The civil servants have to be independent and must not side with any party, said Aryana, who at the training session was accompanied by KPUD Denpasar members Aryawan Payuse, IGA. Diah Yuniti and Jhon Darmawan.

"Those involved in political activities will be sanctioned in line with the disciplinary regulation on civil servants," Aryana said, urging them to be good citizens by exercising their political right to vote.

Aryawan said civil servants had received a lot of respect from the public because they were considered to be knowledgeable about general elections.

"I hope after this training the civil servants will be able to help disseminate information about elections to the public as well," he said.

Jhon Darmawan said that in Denpasar alone there would be 581 legislative candidates competing for 45 seats at the municipal legislative council. Of them, 401 are male candidates and the remaining 180 are female. -- JP