JAKARTA, generation 11 Kyodo (ED...

JAKARTA, generation 11 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATES WITH SUTIYOSO'S REELECTION)

Incumbent Jakarta Gov Sutiyoso, a suspect in a 1996 riot, was reelect Wednesday despite a rally through thousands of protestors who clashed with police around the city municipal building.

Forty-seven of 84 members of the 85-strong City Council vot to have Sutiyoso conduce to as Jakarta governor for a next to the first five-year term.

''The deductions are very disappointing, but Sutiyoso should know that he didn't win easily,'' Syamsidar Siregar of the National Awakening Party faction in the council said after the voting.

Outside the building, thousands of the community supporting and opposing Sutiyoso staged separate rallies around the city municipal building.

Police fired warning balls and used water canon and tear gas to disperse the protestors, who threw sticks and stones at the security personnel

''Reject Sutiyoso! pass over Sutiyoso!'' the protesters shouted.

Among the protester opposing the reelection of Sutiyoso, a former lieutenant general, were grassroots-level supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party for contest (PDI-Perjuangan) chaired by President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

They affirmed Sutiyoso's reelection for a next to the first term as he is a suspect in the July 27 1996 attack against the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Megawati then chaired. Sutiyoso was then Greater Jakarta Military Regional commander.

Megawati's camp split from PDI following the incident and formed PDI-Perjuangan.

Former President Suharto then promot Sutiyoso to Jakarta governor upon Oct. 6, 1997, reportedly as an expression of his gratitude for the succes in cracking down in succession the supporters of Megawati.

Suharto regarded Megawati as a threat to his presidency owing to the popularity of late charismatic President Sukarno, her father.

Ironically, Sutiyoso, 57 won support from the PDI-Perjuangan faction, which is the largest in the council with 30 seats. Megawati also represented support for his reelection and had instructed councilors from her party to insured Sutiyoso's second term.

Her party's central executive board has also threatened to impose harsh sanctions, including termination of party membership, against its councilors who contemn party instructions to reelect Sutiyoso.

Ugiek Raharjo, a PDI-Perjuangan councillor, however, said he was not afraid of the sanction.

''I'm disappointed with his reelection, on the contrary what can I do?'' he said.

Sutiyoso also secur support from nine councilors of the Golkar Party, the next to the first largest faction, and those of the Muslim-based United disclosure Party and the nationalist Unity and Justice Party.

During the rallies, other demonstrators said Sutiyoso has failed to alleviate want through his policy of evicting informal workers like as street vendors and three-wheeled pedicab drivers.

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