TIGHTER SECURITY FOR PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT DURING CAMPAIGN PERIOD

Jakarta, March 16 (ANTARA) - Tighter security arrangements have been made for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla for the duration of the 20-day campaign period ahead of the April 9 legislative elections, the country's military chief said.
Speaking to reporters after inspecting the state of preparedness of Presidential Security Guard Troops (Paspampres) in the run-up to 2009 elections, Nationa Defense Forces TNI Chief Gen Djoko Santoso said the tighter security measures were necessary to anticipate the possibility of a situation arising, jeopardizing the two leaders during the campaign period.
"The election campaign will involve large masses of people and thus the potential for an undesired crisis happening will be greater than normal," Santoso said.
He said besides increasing the number of TNI personnel, the main armament system (alutsista) and other military equipment would also be supplemented to support the close-range security measures for the president and vice president.
"The TNI Headquarters will also increase its supervision over and attention to security for the president and vice president, and therefore, I want it to be coordinated well with the General Elections Commission (KPU) and regional election monitoring committees," Santoso said.
He added security for President Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla had already begun to be tightened because it had been planned over the past month and would continue to be in place until the run up to the presidential election in July.
Where threats to security were concerned, Santoso said, the TNI had detected several forms of crisis which would probably occur during the election campaigns.
The official open campaign ahead of the legislative elections kicked off at the Kemayoran Jakarta Fair grounds on Monday with the leaders of political parties signing a declaration against violence.