The PD lodged the protest against the breaches of commitment that no political party attributes should be used during the peaceful general election campaign declaration events.
The Democratic Party and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono filed a strong protest to the KPU against violations committed during the peaceful general election campaign declaration.
"Yudhoyono came to the event but after he joined the convoy for five minutes he walked out because many violations are committed," PD Secretary General Hinca Pandjaitan said the area of the National Monument (Monas) Square, here on Sunday.
He said it was agreed previously that during the peaceful campaign declaration event participants only traditional attires and there should be no political party attributes being used to avoid the impression of conducting campaign activities.
But in reality, he said, during the event there were many political party attributes but the KPU did not prohibit them.
Hinca explained that from the beginning it was agreed to only use traditional attires so that his party did not carry the political party`s attributes except those provided by the KPU and the party held the commitment.
But according to him, the event was filled with the attributes of political parties that violated the initial agreement and were not provided by the KPU.
"In our opinion, the KPU is not strict and we filed a protest about that with the KPU and the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu). Yet we remain committed to making the elections peaceful," he said.
The two pairs of Indonesia`s presidential and vice presidential candidates as well as leaders of their coalition parties attended the declaration of peaceful election campaigns on Sunday wearing traditional attires.
Held by the General Election Commission (KPU) at the National Monument area, which has become the icon of the country`s capital city Jakarta for decades the declaration sent a message of the importance of preserving the nation`s unity in diversity.
Incumbent President Joko Widodo and his running mate Muslim cleric Ma`ruf Amin wore the traditional dresses of the Balinese and Betawi people respectively while the Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno pair put the attires of different ethnic groups on.
Prabowo wore a Javanese traditional dress, combined with brown Batik and "Blangkon" (traditional Javanese hat) while his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, wore a brown Malay outfit, known as "Teluk Belanga".
Reporting by Imam Budilaksono
Editing by Andi Abdussalam
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
