Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Padang – About 2,000 traders at the Pasar Raya traditional market in Padang, West Sumatra, rallied Wednesday outside the city's legislative council building, protesting against the construction of temporary kiosks following the September earthquake.

"These kiosks prevent us from trading," Budi Syahrial, coordinator of the traders, said during the peaceful rally. He argued the kiosks occupied vacant spaces where the traders usually plied their trade.

"We ask the Padang municipal administration to remove the kiosks," Budi added.

Wednesday's rally was the fourth and largest organized protest by traders from Pasar Raya Market since the 7.9-magnitude earthquake devastated Padang and many other parts of West Sumatra on Sept. 30.

The protesters – mainly women – were mostly traders who opened stalls along the corridors of the market.

Grouped under the Alliance of Pasar Raya Market Traders, they gathered at the market and marched a kilometer to the Padang Legislative Council building.

The Padang administration under Mayor Fauzi Bahar built around 1,100 temporary kiosks on a street near the market to accommodate traders whose stores at the market were destroyed by the massive earthquake.

Budi also demanded the Padang administration and legislative council allocate funds to build new emergency kiosks on a plot of unoccupied land on Jl. Imam Bonjol before the destroyed market was rebuilt.

The protesting traders also asked the city administration to not appoint a private investor to rebuild the market.

"We are worried that all the markets destroyed by the earthquake will be handed over to investors. If this happens, we are afraid we will not be able to afford to buy the kiosks in the rebuilt market," he said.

Syahirman, a 55-year-old trader who joined the rally, said he was worried about the construction of emergency kiosks, which he argued would prevent him and fellow low-income traders from restarting businesses.

"Now 1,100 kiosks have been built there and they sideline us from trading because they occupy our spaces," he said.

"We have also heard that kiosks would also be constructed on the vacant space for shop owners from the Central Pasar Raya (modern) market. I and other (low-income) traders would certainly lose the places from trading, while we are those hardest hit by the quake," Syahirman told The Jakarta Post during the protest.

According to him, shop owners and small-scale traders who had received kiosks participated in the protest. "Those who have been given kiosks are sympathetic to us. They don't want the emergency kiosks to evict us from trading," Syahirman added.

The protesters' representatives were received by Padang Legislative Council Deputy Speaker Budiman during the rally.

Budiman said he had conveyed a recommendation to the Padang mayor that he should heed the traders' demands. However, the city administration was yet to make a response, Budiman added.