Jakarta/Magelang/Surabaya. Indonesian political parties on Sunday kicked off the beginning of the 2014 campaign season with a mixture of mass gatherings, street convoys and rallies across the country.
The events ranged from grand spectacles to subdued displays of support, as parties tried to solidify their bases ahead of the April 9 contest.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), for example, booked Bung Karno Stadium in Central Jakarta to mark the first day of campaigning. The party was expecting some 250,000 supporters to gather at the event, which officials said would be “full of surprises.”
“The surprises include a church choir from East Nusa Tenggara singing the PKS anthem and ‘Indonesia Raya’ [the country's national anthem],” PKS deputy secretary-general Fahri Hamzah said before the event on Sunday. “This will support our [image] as an open party.”
The Islamic-leaning PKS — plagued by a corruption scandal that saw its former chairman sent to prison last year — has been trying to market itself as an open party that is inclusive of people from various faiths and belief systems.
Fahri added that three PKS presidential hopefuls — Anis Matta, Ahmad Heryawan and Hidayat Nurwahid — would give speeches at the event.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), meanwhile, utilized the recent presidential candidacy of the massively-popular Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo to commence the party’s campaign.
Joko led a convoy of PDI-P officials and supporters around some of Jakarta’s historical sites, including the National Awakening Museum, the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge) Museum and the Pancasila Hall in Central Jakarta.
“This is the place where Indonesia’s first modern organized movement began, where our national awakening began,” Joko said at the National Awakening Museum, which once hosted Budi Utomo, Indonesia’s first modern political society. “We hope with a new national awakening, [the era] of Great Indonesia will begin.”
Away from Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party focused its campaign activities in the Central Java town of Magelang.
Party patron Pramono Edhie Wibowo said the campaign event at Magelang’s Pujon field was expected to draw 30,000 supporters.
The event was originally scheduled to include the installation of State-Owned Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan as a new party cadre, but Yudhoyono’s last minute decision to cancel his attendance at the event delayed Dahlan’s membership ceremony.
The president is currently visiting Riau to check on the province’s forest fires and haze problems
Dahlan, however, was still expected to address party supporters in a speech, Pramono said.
“I’m welcoming Pak Dahlan [to the Democratic party],” Pramono told reporters in Magelang. “The Democrats are getting stronger now.”
The United Development Party (PPP) started its campaign activities in Surabaya with an event held by party chairman and Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali.
Campaign trail
On the administrative end of the elections, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has divided the 12 participating political parties into three groups, each of which share different campaign schedules for different provinces.
The first group, for example, consisting of the PKS, the PDI-P, the National Democratic (NasDem) Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB), is scheduled to hold campaigns in Jakarta on March 16, March 24 and April 1.
The second group, comprising the Golkar Party, the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), meanwhile, is only allowed to campaign in the capital on March 18, March 26 and April 3.
Members of the third group — the PPP, the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) — will be allowed to campaign in Jakarta on March 20, March 28 and April 5.
The KPU has set an “open campaign period,” during which political parties are allowed to hold gatherings and marches and advertise in mass media, from March 16 to April 5 — four days before the April 9 contest.
Source/Fuente: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesia-political-parties-mark-sta...
