INDONESIA: Indonesian candidates step up their campaigns ahead of parliamentary elections on April 9

Record ID: 346053

  • Title: INDONESIA: Indonesian candidates step up their campaigns ahead of parliamentary elections on April 9
  • Date: 3rd April 2009
  • Summary: SUPPORTER HOLDING YUDHOYONO'S PHOTOGRAPH SUPPORTERS DANCING
  • Embargoed: 18th April 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACGSO8HUA2GN73NRXNW82ZLD4K
  • Story Text: With a week to go, Indonesian election candidates are hoping to lure voters using colourful posters with their photographs emblazoned on them, breaking away from traditional campaign methods of using the party logo.
    Indonesia's main election candidates Megawati Sukarnoputri and current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are hitting the campaign trail in the traditional way ahead fo the April 9 parliamentary elections.
    But Indonesia's other candidates are taking advantage of new election rules that allow for greater individuality, providing them with more means to lure voters in the world's largest Muslim country.
    In previous years, campaign posters have not been as colourful, featuring just the name of the candidate and the party's logo.
    Now that photographs have been allowed, election candidates beam from posters, banners and stickers plastered all over the country.
    The official campaign period began on March 16 with 44 parties supporting several candidates in each constituency for the April 9 vote.
    Some 12,000 candidates are eyeing 128 seats in the upper house and 550 seats in the lower house of Indonesia's parliament.
    The huge number of candidates has forced them to use eye-catching designs and materials to attract voters across the 17,000 islands that make up the country.
    But despite the new campaign tactics, voters say they will vote for a party, not a personality.

    "I think I will choose the party not the person," said Yuswan, who has only one name like most Indonesians.
    Another Jakarta resident, Yose Rizal, said he's not a fan of the new style of campaigning.

    "I think the way they campaign is not effective enough. People want the candidates to interact more with them," said Yose Rizal.
    Prasetyo Edi Marsudi, a new candidate from the PDI-P party running in the contest, said he put up his photograph to widen his appeal, project his concern for the electorate and ultimately attract votes.

    "I began the campaign with stickers but am now putting up banners in my constituency in Jakarta," he said.

    "I believe that I can get 15 to 20 percent of voters by using the stickers and banners to publicise my campaign. Overall I can get almost 60 percent of the vote by using the stickers, banners and interacting with the public," Prasetyo added.
    The craze for stickers and banners has printing presses around the country working at full-tilt.

    "We can exceed by two to three times our normal production run but after the election season, the production will return to normal," said Purwanti, who manages a printing factory in Jakarta.
    But Indonesia's Election Watchdog Agency felt the methods were not effective enough because people still now the parties, but not necessarily who is running.

    "The photographs are not that important because the ballot papers only have the name of the candidate and party," said Bambang Eka Cahya, an official from the Indonesian Election Watchdog Agency.
    But this fact has not deterred the thousands of candidates trying to stand out in the crowd and constituencies are overflowing with campaign paraphernalia.
    Southeast Asia's biggest economy and largest democracy will hold presidential elections later in July.
    ENDS.
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