JUSUF KALLA TO HOLD CAMPAIGN RALLY IN BATAM

Batam, Riau Islands, June 20 (ANTARA) - Presidential candidate M Jusuf Kalla is scheduled to hold an electoral campaign rally in Batam, Sumatra, on Wednesday (June 24).

"Every body can come, it's open to the public," Gunawan Satari, a spokesman of the Jusuf Kalla (JK)-Wiranto (Win)ticket's success team for Riau Islands, said here on Saturday.

Kalla will stay in Batam, an important industrial zone in Indonesia, for three hours. Apart from the open campaign, the presidential aspirant from the Golkar party is also expected to hold a meeting with local businessmen.

"But the agenda is not fixed yet," Satari said.

Before coming to Batam on Wednesday, Kalla will attend a campaign rally in Medan, North Sumatra.

On Saturday (June 20), Kalla was scheduled to hold dialogic campaign at Jayapura sport stadium, Papua, Indonesia's eastern most province.

In the campaign Kalla will hold a dialog with local people to obtain first hand information about their complaints and ups and downs as an input for him to do something for the local people if he is elected president in the upcoming July 8 presidential election.

During his stay in Papua, the Papuan indigenous people would inaugurate Jusuf Kalla as a successful national leader for his role in handling communal conflicts in Aceh (northern Sumatra), Ambon (Maluku), and Poso (Central Sulawesi).

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has set schedules for closed-door campaigning from June 2 to 10, and mass rallies from June 11 to July 4, 2009. The presidential elections will be held on July 8, 2009.

Jusuf Kalla and Wiranto are competing with other candidates, namely incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who pairs with Boediono, an economist, as well as with former president Megawati Soekarnoputri and retired general Prabowo in the upcoming presidential race.