Candidates Wary of SMS Campaigns

Legislative candidates said Wednesday they would be careful in sending out SMS campaigns to voters because it could provoke a backlash.

Although the legislative candidates welcomed the ministerial decrees allowing then to campaign through cell phones, they expressed worry that excessive messages could bore or anger voters.

“It is time for Ciamis’ people to lead the country. We can make it come true at the elections,” read an SMS sent by Saryono Jahidi, a legislative candidate from the National Awakening Party (PKB).

“SMS is the most effective and cheapest way to inform voters about our missions and visions,” Saryono, who is competing for a seat in Kuningan, Banjar and Ciamis electoral districts in West Java told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

“But, I must be very careful in sending SMS because it could bore people and cause me to lose votes.”

Saryono, who is employing an 100-member campaign team, said he gave his team the task of texting messages to a number of phones belonging to potential voters.

Under a 2009 ministerial decree signed by the Information and Communications Minister Muhammad Nuh, political parties, candidates of the legislative and Regional Representatives Council (DPD) can use telecommunication devices and services, including the cellular phones, to campaign.

The decree allows legislative and DPD candidates to send their visions, missions and programs through SMS with or without cooperation with content providers.

The candidates should stop sending SMS during the silent days, a week before election day.
Article 9 of the decree states that legislative candidates and content providers are prohibited from sending SMS to people who rejected them earlier.

There are 12,000 legislative candidates running for 560 seats at the House of Representatives.

In addition, there are 1,109 candidates of the DPD with another hundred of thousands of candidates running for seats in provincial and regencies’ legislative bodies.

The legislative elections will be held on April 9 after over nine months of campaigning.

The Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Body (BRTI) estimated that cell phone users reached about 80 million in 2007.

The polls body has registered about 170 million voters for the 2009 general elections.

Saryono said the use of SMS would be cheaper than advertising on television, printing street banners and making T-shirts.

Dini Mentari of the United Development Party (PPP) said SMS campaigns were more effective as they could reach potential voters directly.

“But, if we don’t have data on cell phone numbers, we can’t do anything,” said Dini, who is running for a seat in Bandung regency and West Bandung, West Java.

Legislative candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Apong Herlina said she was careful when using SMS to campaign.

She said her SMS was only sent to numbers listed in her cell phones.

“I sent my friend an SMS informing about my candidacy and asking them to relay the information to others friends within my electoral district,” she said.

Apong is running in the electoral districts of the Central Jakarta, South Jakarta and foreign countries.

Daniel Dhakidae from the Institute of Research, Education and Information of Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES) said people could be flooded with ‘unwanted’ SMS from the candidates anywhere and at anytime.

“It could cause psychological distress for the receivers. It could be so terrible that could trigger pessimism and stop people from participating in the election,” he said.

Adianto P. Simamora , THE JAKARTA POST , JAKARTA | Thu, 02/12/2009 9:26 AM | National