---------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe?, send your mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body mail: "signoff indonews" need more help?, send your mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body mail: "info refcard" ---------------------------------------------------------- Indonesia to ban rallies for election campaign JAKARTA, Feb 2 (AFP) - The Indonesian government will ban outdoor political rallies during the campaign for the June 7 general election, reports said Tuesday. The Indonesian General Elections Board (LPU) has agreed a schedule for the first post-Suharto polls. And Home Affairs Minister Syarwan Hamid, who chairs the board, said political parties would not be allowed to stage outdoor rallies to avoid violence, the Jakarta Post daily said. "Political parties will not be allowed to mobilize the masses in open fields and party supporters will be barred from taking to the streets. "These measures are meant to prevent clashes and violence like in the past," Hamid said. Past election campaigns under Suharto were marked huge rallies, street convoys and violence between supporters of the three legal parties that contested the elections. A legislature has to be formed by November 10 to elect a president and a vice president. President B.J. Habibie, who took over from veteran strongman Suharto last May, has promised elections by June. Many analysts have said the election will be a test of the new Indonesian government's democratic credentials. Opponents have accused Habibie of being a left-over from the old Suharto regime. The election process started Monday with a one month period for parties to register and be approved, Kompas daily reported. Some 130 new parties have sprung up since Suharto was forced to stand down amid protests over the economy and political climate. Officials say only about 30 will be allowed to contest the election. The second one-month phase, begining March 18, will be for voters to register. From March 1 to April 15, parties will have to submit candidates for national, provincial and district elections. A 20 day legislative election campaign will start on May 18 and end one day before the June 7 election. The winning district election candidates will be named between June 20 and June 26, those at provincial level between June 27 and July 2 and those for the national parliament between July 3 and July 12. National legislators will be sworn in on August 29. Parliament last week passed new political laws governing political parties, the composition and role of the legislature and the elections. Home Affairs Ministry spokesman Herman Ibrahim said 11 government and non-government representatives, including of students, will determine which parties would be allowed to contest the election. "The team is composed of non partisan, impartial individuals of high integrity," Ibrahim said. The team includes leading pro-reform Moslem academic Nurcholis Majid, the Home Affairs Ministry's Andi Mallarangeng, independent poll monitor Mulyanakusumah, student leader Rama Pratama, human rights lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, former supreme judge Andi Andoyo and Miriam Budiarjo, a former member of the national human rights commission. Hamid was quoted by the Jakarta Post as estimating that only about 30 parties were expected to pass the vetting. Voters will now have to register themselves. In the past, election committee teams went from house to house. But Ibrahim said party candidates would no longer be subjected to security screening. Under Suharto, intelligence screening was carried out, officially to weed out candidates with past links to the banned Indonesian Communist Party. The practice was widely criticized by human rights activists and politicians as a tool to root out vocal and critical legislators. Habibie's government has pledged these elections will be free and fair and the government would welcome foreign observers. bs/tw/pch ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 2 Feb 1999 jam 09:48:01 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
