"The government has appealed to the people to use their voting rights responsibly by choosing the best programs offered by candidates," the minister said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesias Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin has urged people to consider the working programs of electoral candidates as their basis to decided their choice in the regional elections next year.
"The government has appealed to the people to use their voting rights responsibly by choosing the best programs offered by candidates," he said after opening a national coordination meeting of the Forum of Inter-religious Harmony at his office here on Thursday.
Lukman further said people must not take into account paternal or primordial issues, but must rather see programs offered by candidates for developing their respective regions.
"See the programs that need to be prioritized and that are badly needed to resolve the problems faced by region," he said.
He added that using the working programs of candidates as the basis to decide their choice was a way of voting responsibly to assure better democracy in Indonesia.
The minister also said that people need to have their own preferences, based on various factors, including religion or ethnicity of candidates.
However, people must also be invited to understand that the government works, based on programs, and so factors, such as religion and ethnicity must be used as the basis for voting.
Although preferences made based upon religion and ethnicity factors are common, people also need to choose the best programs offered by candidates, he said.
"We appeal to all to use programs as the important basis for exercising their voting rights," Lukman stressed.
Indonesia plans to conduct elections in 101 regions in the country in February next year.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
