The 38-year-old woman is not a politician or a campaign team member. She is a housewife, who earns money for her family by roasting kemplang fish crackers, but has been visiting residents houses as the head of the Coastal Women's Network (JPP).

In the past two years, Nurhayati and dozens of other housewives in Sukaraja subdistrict, Bandarlampung, have been busy.

While working hard to earn an additional income for their families, these women provide education for other residents.

Their programs include encouraging residents living around the Lampung Bay to save the environment by planting mangrove trees and recycle their household waste into organic compost and handicraft items.

Ahead of the mayoral election, Nurhayati and her colleagues have been working to provide political education for residents.

"Voting for a mayoral candidate will determine our fate over the next five years. We must choose a candidate who cares about the coastal environment and upholds the basic rights of coastal residents," said Nurhayati.

The network, she said, had been able to bring together 21,996 voters to vote for a mayoral candidate that would support their concerns.

"We want our mayoral candidate to sign a political contract in front of the notary and provide us with land titles if elected," said Nurhayati.

She explained the Lampung Bay coastal residents did not have a good experience with political promises made in the 2005 election.

In 2005, she said the residents demanded Mayor Eddy Sutrisno, who was then a mayoral candidate, sign a political contract.

"We agreed to vote for him on the condition that he work on coastal restoration and ensure we were not evicted," she recalled.

"After he was appointed mayor, we were evicted for the Water Front City project. He also declined our invitation to observe the mangrove forest restoration drive.

"That's why we will demand the candidate sign a political contract in front of a public notary for legal strength," she explained.

The network's activist, Faisal Basri, said the Lampung Bay area was home to 12 subdistricts with 90,000 eligible voters.

"We have estimated that around 30,000 eligible voters, or 30 percent of the coastal residents, will join us ahead of the election," he said.

"If they really vote for the candidate who signed a political contract with us, it will be outstanding as it will be because of those women, who absolutely have no experience as NGO activists."

Herza Yulianto, director of Mitra Bentala, a local NGO working with remote islanders in Lampung, praised the efforts of the housewives.

"We have been providing advocacy to residents living in remote islands for the past dozen years, but we have yet to gain as big a support from Lampung Bay coastal residents as their *housewives* network," he said.

Six pairs of candidates will contest the Bandarlampung mayoral election on June 30, vying to garner votes from 621,696 eligible voters.

Three pairs are nominated by political parties. They are Kherlani-Heru Sambodo (nominated by Golkar, the National Awakening Party and Hanura); Herman H.N.-Tobroni Hamim (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle); Eddy Sutrisno-Hantoni Hasan (the Democratic Party, the United Development Party and the National Mandate Party).

The other three are independent hopefuls. They are Dhomiril Hakim-Sugiyanto, Nurdiono-Dian Kurnia Laratte and Syauki Shobier-Syansul Rizal.

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