Callistasia Anggun Wijaya, Jakarta – More squatters and people occupying state land will be forced to abandon their homes this year as the city administration intends to bulldoze their houses to make way for urban infrastructure, including flood mitigation projects.

Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, however, has vowed to relocate those affected to low-cost apartments that have and will be built by the Jakarta administration.

The governor said on Friday that his intention to run for reelection in the 2017 gubernatorial election would not discourage him from carrying out unpopular policies such as evictions.

"Considering the political perspective, I should not conduct many evictions this year because it may make Jakarta residents decide not to give me photocopies of their IDs and they may not vote for me. But if I did that, I would be violating my oath of office" Ahok told journalist at City Hall.

He added that he was appointed governor to ease traffic congestion and mitigate flooding and so he had to widen rivers so they could accommodate more rainwater and for that he needed to evict people from structures built on riverbanks.

"To widen rivers, I should conduct evictions. I will stop conducting evictions when low-cost apartments are fully occupied," Ahok said.

To run as an independent candidate in 2017, Ahok needs the support of at least 7.5 percent of eligible voters in Jakarta. To prove he has the support, he needs to collect 532,000 photocopies of Jakartans' IDs. Ahok said he had so far collected 500,000 photocopies of IDs, but he called on supporters to collect 1 million.

Ahok said Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), a group of Ahok supporters, had questioned his decision to conduct more evictions this year because they feared it would jeopardize his popularity prior to the gubernatorial election. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/08/elections-wont-stop-evictions.html