Activists have slammed a General Elections Commission plan to criminalise campaigning for golput (abstaining or invalidating a vote) ahead of this year’s legislative and presidential elections.

Smoke reads: Natural disasters, volcanic eruptions, flash floods, politics, corruption, Constitutional Court bribes, Upstream Oil and Gas Regulator bribery, political parties, election witness fees...

Sign reads: 2014 Festival of Democracy (2014 legislative and presidential elections)

Man: It’s a level 3 alert!

Text reads: Presidential Candidate (Golkar’s Aburizal Bakrie), Politician, Legislative Candidate, Politics (President Yudhoyono)

With many senior government officials vying with each other to be nominated by the major political parties as presidential candidates (Capres) and more than 90% of lawmakers running as legislative candidates (Caleg) in the April general elections, the political elite have all but abandoned the pretence of trying to run the country.

Man: Please, go ahead Mr...

With legislative and presidential elections only a few months away, the Australian spy scandal provided a perfect opportunity for political grandstanding with politicians of every strip falling over each other to demonstrate their nationalist credentials by either blasting Australia – or slamming President Yudhoyono for over-reacting or criticis

Kid: For the convention test: Tempeh made from peanut and soybean residue... they’re fond of that right Mr?

Man: Authentic soya sauce yeah Mr? (bottle reads ‘The No 1 Authentic Soya Sauce’, badge reads ‘Presidential Candidate’)

Kid: But soybeans are scarce and expensive!

Jakarta – More than half of voters are confused about the current political situation. A survey by the Soegeng Sarjadi School of Government indicates that as many as 51.45 percent of respondents have yet to make their choice of political party. Yet the 2014 legislative and presidential elections are less that a year away.

Mirror reads Conscience of the People, badge reads Presidential Candidate, can reads BALSEM.

[The following is a joint statement by the Yogyakarta Working People’s Association-Political Organisation Congress (KPO-PRP), the Politics of the People (PR) and the People’s Liberation Party (PPR).]

Aditya Revianur, Jakarta – The coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Haris Ashar says that the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) should issue a list of 2014 presidential (capres) and legislative (caleg) candidates that have committed crimes against humanity.

Drum reads: Political racket

Ezra Sihite/Wisnu Cipto – Mass organisations (Ormas) that are part of the Pancasila Front are ready to oppose any follow up on the recommendations by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) on the 1965 killings.

Laurencius Simanjuntak – The revolutionary ideals of the People’s Democratic Party (PRD) founded 16 years ago were thwarted. The New Order regime of former President Suharto in a rage of fury obliterated the party only a few months after it was declared on July 22, 1996.

As the political parties prepare to do battle in the 2014 general and presidential elections, anti-corruption activists warn that politically related graft cases over the next two years will increase sharply since most campaign funds are raised from illegal sources – corruption, corporate blackmail, milking state-owned companies and money from g

Despite the best attempts by Golkar Party spin doctors to portray the massive Lapindo mudflow disaster in East Java in a positive light, insisting that he has shown a “moral commitment” in seeking to compensate the thousands displaced by the mud or claims that victims have been paid more than their land is worth, business tycoon and budding Golk

Bakrie: Looks fit to run for president he does!

Muhammad Aminudin, Malang – The second year of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and Vice President Boediono’s administration was commemorated by students in the East Java city of Malang with a demonstration at the Malang city Regional House of Representatives (DPRD).

Exhaust: Bank Century, Lapindo disaster, racial, religious & ethnic conflicts, judicial & tax mafia, migrant workers, Yogyakarta gudeg, tiwul food poisoning.