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Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday calls for all related parties to conduct peaceful elections and avoid anarchism.

"Legislative and presidential candidates must be ready to win or lose. The winner should stay humble while those who lose does not need to be furious," Yudhoyono said on his official Twitter account @SBYudhoyono. 

The president took example of presidential election in 1999 and several regional elections in Indonesia which at first run peacefully but then turned violent.

Golkar Party chairman and presidential candidate Aburizal Bakrie left Jakarta on Tuesday to campaign in cities in Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara ahead the legislative election on April 9.

Aburizal and his 50-strong entourage, which includes 20 journalists, departed from Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in East Jakarta aboard a Fokker 100 aircraft.

The chartered executive jet was bound for Makassar, South Sulawesi, where Aburizal is expected to lead Golkar's national campaign together with the province's governor, Syahrul Yasin Limpo, who is also a Golkar member.

Jakarta. Police have arrested dozens of people in East Nusa Tenggara for allegedly setting fire to a regional election office linked to a disputed district election involving former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar. 

“We have named 54 people suspects,” Southwest Sumba Police chief, Adj. Sr. Cmr. M. Ischaq said on Tuesday. ”They will be charged under Article 12 of the 1951 law on carrying sharp weapons and will also be charged with arson and vandalizing public facilities.”

The General Elections Commission (KPU) on Sunday kicked off the 2014 legislative election for Indonesian citizens in five countries

Voting will be carried out at six representative offices, namely in Beijing, Shanghai, Brasilia, Copenhagen, Santiago and Hong Kong.

KPU commissioner Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah said that voting had been scheduled around the local holiday and in consideration of weather conditions to boost voter turnout. In Hong Kong, for instance, voting was held on Sunday, as a storm was predicted to hit the country in early April.

The National Police have launched investigations into five alleged campign violations that had been reported by the Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu), a police official said on Friday.

The allegations include the deliberate destruction of campaign paraphernalia in Bali, the use of state facilities and the involvement of subdistrict heads in campaigns in Central Java, organizing political events outside the official campaign period in Papua, and vote-buying in West Sumatra.

Jakarta. Activists on Friday slammed the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) for dismissing reports about alleged campaign violations by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Democratic Party chairman.

“There is an impression that the Bawaslu chairman is siding with Yudhoyono as if he wants to protect the president,” Said Salahuddin, from the group People’s Synergy for Democracy, said on Friday.

Critics lambasted Yudhoyono for allegedly using state facilities for political campaigning purposes — a clear violation of electoral law.

Sleman, Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - The general chairman of Golkar Party, Aburizal Bakrie (ARB), again praised former president Soehartos government during a campaign rally here on Saturday, saying that it was better than the present government.

"I am ready to run for president to revive Soehartos glory," he said.

Kemasuk, Yogyakarta. Painted on the back of trucks and emblazoned across T-shirts, the smiling face of former Indonesian dictator Suharto has become a common sight across Java 16 years after his downfall.

“How are you bro? Still better in my time, no?!” runs a phrase commonly printed alongside the late army general, toppled following more than three decades in power when the Asian financial crisis tore into Indonesia.

Jakarta. Political tension escalated following the decision by the biggest opposition party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to name the hugely popular Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as its presidential candidate, with doubts looming over his ability to rule the country.