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Megawati barred from May polls, final list shows

Source
Agence France Presse - April 2, 1997

Jakarta – President Suharto's children and other relatives will contest general elections next month while opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri and her supporters have been barred, a final list of candidates showed yesterday.

The National Election Institute published a list of 2,285 people allowed to run in the May 29 elections: 716 from the Muslim-led United Development Party, 825 from the ruling Golkar party and 744 from the Christian-nationalist Indonesian Democracy Party.

The list, virtually unchanged from an original provisional one, included four of Suharto's children, one daughter-in-law, a cousin and a half-brother, along with scores of close relatives of senior military and civilian officials. They are all standing as Golkar candidates.

The original list was released in January.

Suryadi, appointed chairman in June by a government-sanctioned rebel PDI faction which toppled Ms Megawati as party chairman, is heading his party's list for Jakarta.

Golkar has fielded two ministers in the capital, along with Mr Suharto's second son Bambang Trihatmodjo, pop singer Rhoma Irama who left the PPP last year and leading Muslim preacher Kosim Nurseha.

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