Jakarta – Indonesia's two opposition parties have filed official complaints about the May election campaign regulations, saying they are too restrictive.

"We think the regulations do not make the campaign process smooth, but they limit the space for parties like ours," United Development Party (PPP) chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum said.

PPP and the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) have officially filed a complaint about the campaign regulations, saying they are too restrictive for them to follow.

Indonesia's three officially sanctioned parties _ PPP, PDI and the ruling Golkar party _ will vie for 425 parliamentary seats in the 29 May elections.

In the past few weeks the PPP and PDI have publicly criticised the campaign regulations as disadvantaging them and favouring President Suharto's ruling Golkar party, which has won every election since 1971.

Seven PPP chapters from central Java said last month they would boycott the campaign. A package of five regulations governing the electoral campaign did not reflect "honest and just" elections.

The regulations include a strict campaign rotation which requires party executives to go to different locations far apart in the archipelago in a single day and have their broadcast campaign speeches first checked by the government.

National Election Institute secretary Suryatna Subrata said that despite the complaints the regulations would not be changed, but added that some technical aspects of the regulations' implementation could be discussed.

"What we need at this point, if there are still complaints from the two parties, is more technical explanations of the regulations," Mr Subrata, who is also the home ministry's secretary-general, said. Golkar has received widespread criticism for using government facilities and officials to gain support in general elections.

The country's six million civil servants are required to vote for Golkar, as are their spouses and children.

The two parties have also accused Golkar of campaigning far ahead of the scheduled one month before the 29 May elections.

The mayor of the central Java town of Solo has ordered trees, lamp posts, fences and pavements on the town's central square to be painted in Golkar's party colour of yellow, sparking the community's anger.

The colour of the square has since changed at least four times, with PPP and PDI supporters doing paint-overs, and city officials repainting it yellow.