"During the cooling-off period, all candidate pairs, campaign teams, volunteers and supporters must refrain from any activities considered as campaigning activities," Sumarno said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Chairman of the Jakarta Election Commission (KPU) Sumarno has urged the candidates of the Jakarta regional head elections to abide by the regulations during the cooling-off period by not campaigning.

"During the cooling-off period, all candidate pairs, campaign teams, volunteers and supporters must refrain from any activities considered as campaigning activities," Sumarno said here on Tuesday.

He made the statement after attending a coordinating meeting with the Jakarta Police, the Jakarta Military Command, the acting Jakarta Governor, and chairman of the Jakarta Election Supervisory Office (Bawaslu).

The KPU has explained the three Jakarta gubernatorial candidate pairs about the cooling-off period.

The local commission has asked the candidates to remove all banners and other campaigning materials in public places.

"I remind them that all campaign attributes must be removed," he added.

The Internet accounts of the candidates must be closed down during the cooling-off period from Feb 12 to 14, 2017.

Regional head elections, locally called Pilkada, will be organized simultaneously in 101 regions, comprising of 7 provinces, 18 municipalities and 76 districts, on Feb 15, 2017.

The KPU added that the elections, held in seven provinces of Jakarta, Aceh, Banten, Bangka Belitung, Gorontalo, West Papua and West Sulawesi, needed at least 45.59 million pieces of ballot papers.

Of the total, over 22.91 million pieces are for voters in district head and mayoral elections, and 22.67 million for voters in governors (provincial head) elections.

In order to secure the elections, the commander of the Indonesian military (TNI), General Gatot Nurmantyo, has promised that the TNI rank-and-file would back up the police in ensuring security for the successful conduct of the regional elections.

"This is my commitment. From Sabang in the western tip of Indonesia to Merauke in the easternmost part of the country, I have ordered all regional military commanders to remain on standby. Do not hesitate to deploy available forces," the TNI commander said recently.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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