KPU accused of siding with candidate pair

Erwida Maulia ,  THE JAKARTA POST ,  JAKARTA   |  Mon, 06/29/2009 12:32 PM  |  Presidential Election

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has ordered that around 1,000 banners be removed nationwide after Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Soekarnoputri suggested the message encouraged the public to vote for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the upcoming presidential election.

The banners were intended to inform the public about voting processes, but will now be removed following protest from the two candidates and their campaign teams.

"I have ordered the removal of all the material intended to inform the public *about how to vote* that has turned out to be problematic," KPU member Endang Sulastri said to Antara while briefing members of Central Java's KPU regional branches in Semarang over the weekend.

Endang said she issued a circular to regional KPUDs ordering the removal of all the contentious election information across the country.

The banners produced and distributed to the regions by the KPU depict six boxes, representing two per candidate pair. The boxes do not display photographs of any of the candidate pairs competing in the July 8 presidential election, but are shown in a row similar to on a ballot paper.

The campaign teams of Candidate No. 3 Kalla-Wiranto and Candidate No.1 Megawati-Prabowo disagreed with the banners because they depict the third and fourth boxes, belong to Yudhoyono and Boediono, with a mark indicating a vote. They have suggested that by showing these boxes marked, the KPU is directing the public to vote for the pair of Yudhoyono and Boediono.

The teams said earlier they will report the "unfair" election banners to the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu).

Endang said the banners were not an effort by the KPU to side with incumbent President Yudhoyono.

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