Indonesia kicks off a nine-month election campaign

Thirty-four parties are eligible to take part in the campaign for the legislative elections on April 9, 2009, to vie for places in Indonesia's 682-member parliament. Candidates for the Regional Representatives' Council are also invited to take part in the campaign.

In the last general elections held in 2004, a total of 24 political parties contested the election.

The political parties can then start "selling" their missions and visions to win over voters' hearts and minds from Sunday until April 5, 2009.

"To mark the nine-month campaign, we have invited leaders of the political parties to sign a peaceful declaration on Saturday. We hope it will prevent them from engaging in 'black' campaigns," a member of the Indonesian Election Commission (KPU) Abdul Azis was quoted by DPA as telling the Jakarta Post.

Abdul said all parties had expressed their commitment to obey the recently issued regulation on the election campaign.

The decree, issued three days before the campaign kicks off, allows the election campaign to be run through limited meetings, indoor and general meetings or advertisements in the print and electronic media.

Under the regulation, closed-door campaign meetings can be attended by a maximum of 500 people at the provincial level, and indoor campaign meetings can have no more than 250 attendants.

Political parties are allowed to ...