Surabaya Mayor Ready to Comly with Civil Servant Rules

Surabaya, E Java (Antara) - Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini is ready to resign as a civil servant in order to file her bid for re-election in December 2015. \"I know the rules that I must comply with,\" she said on Friday. As per the law on Regional Head Election, National Defense Forces (TNI) members, Indonesian Police (Polri) members and civil servants are required to resign after they have been registered as regional head candidates. Rismaharini was the head of the Surabaya City Development Planning Board (Bappeko) before the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) picked her to run as Surabaya mayor. Although she has resigned as the head of the Bappeko, she is still registered as a non-active civil servant at the Surabaya City Personnel Administration Board. Asked if she was seeking re-election, Rismaharini said she is still undecided about running for the post of Surabaya mayor again in the December 2015 election. She said she still has to wait for a response from the Surabaya residents on whether they wish her to seek re-election or not. \"Let us see the response from the residents as to whether or not they wish me to run for the mayoral election again,\" she stated. Several PDIP sub-branches in Surabaya have urged the party\'s executive board in the city against nominating incumbent Mayor Tri Rismaharini for the second term. The Deputy Chief of the Executive Board in the city Sukadar said on Tuesday that his side had received inputs from the sub-branches during a conference of the Surabaya PDIP on Monday, suggesting that the party will nominate someone from its own cadre to run for the Surabaya mayoral election. (*) Reported by Fiqih Arfani