Jakarta – More than 60,000 police and troops will be deployed to safeguard the Indonesian capital when election campaigning starts this month, a report said here thursday.

Colonel Sunarko, head of the Jakarta police control and operations centre, said 62,532 police and troops will be deployed from when the campaign period opens on May 19 until after polling on June 7, the Suara Karya daily reported.

The force will be backed by 39,000 civilian militias while 16 companies of police and 100 companies of soldiers would be held in reserve. A company consists of around 100 men.

A total of 48 political parties will take part in the elections which have been touted by the government of President B.J. Habibie as the most democratic, fair and honest in decades.

Indonesia has had seven elections so far, six of them under the iron-fisted government of former president Suharto who stepped down in May last year. Only three parties were allowed to take part in elections during the Suharto era.

Jakarta, the capital of the Indonesian republic has a population of some 11 million people.