Ready, Steady, Campaign!

It all starts tomorrow! The election campaign proper! There is a list of places where parties are allowed to campaign, and anther list of places where they are not. The no-go list includes the Hotel Indonesia roundabout - a traditional location for the my-party-has-more-followers-than-yours rallies. Of course it's all very well to ban gatherings outside the approved venues, but the people who are paid to attend - oops - I mean the devoted party followers, can hardly be expected to arrive one-by-one and wait in orderly lines for admission. This means there will be major congestion near campaign venues (for the major parties anyway - in fact it would be very embarrassing if there was none).

Despite a last minute balls-up with the campaign schedule, once again the General Elections Commission has arranged things so parties who hate each other do not campaign on the same day. Which is another way of telling any party scheduled on the same day as one of the biggies that they don't have much of a chance.

With apologies for the Jakarta-centric nature of this post, here is the schedule for the capital for the major parties (everybody gets two turns):

Tuesday 17 March: Golkar (traditionally generous to attendees)
Wednesday 18 March: United Development Party (PPP) (if anybody remembers who they are)
Friday 20 March: Democrat Party (SBY's lot) (will have to be very discreet if it pays people to attend) & Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) (the holier-than-thou lot, big in the capital)
Saturday 21 March: National Mandate Party (PAN) (if anybody comes...) & Gerindra (with Rp15 billion in funds, they have enough to hand out food, cash and T-shirts to all comers)
Tuesday 24 March: Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) (another rentacrowd party)
Thursday 26 March: Hanura (Wiranto) (also rich, needs to be seen as more popular than the hated Gerindra, so may be generous with the food and cash) & Democrat Party (again)
Saturday 28 March: Golkar (last chance to show they are loved by the people)
Monday 30 March: Prosperous Justice Party (probably will try to turn Jakarta white by bussing in supporters and causing traffic chaos)
Tuesday 31 March: National Mandate Party (farewell fling) & Gerindra (probably still lots of money left - expect a big show)
Saturday 4 April: PDI-P (Could be a biggie as nobody is at work - not that it makes much diference to the unemployed)