Manual tabulation confirms Susilo's lead<\/p>\n
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The General Elections Commission (KPU) began on Saturday the
\nmanual vote count for the presidential election, with Susilo
\nBambang Yudhoyono and running mate Jusuf Kalla still leading the
\npack.<\/p>\n
As of 5 p.m. on Saturday, front-runners Susilo and Kalla had
\n24,118,553 votes from 13 provinces, ahead of Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri and running mate Hasyim Muzadi with 20,411,438
\nvotes.<\/p>\n
Wiranto and running mate Solahuddin Wahid trailed in third
\nwith 15,377,593 votes, followed by Amien Rais and Siswono
\nYudohusodo with 11,418,495 votes, and Hamzah Haz and Agum Gumelar
\nwith 2,224,323 votes.<\/p>\n
The provisional results correspond with the computerized vote
\ncount also done by the KPU.<\/p>\n
According to the Elections Law, the official election results
\nwill be based on the manual vote count.<\/p>\n
The KPU will continue the manual count on Sunday and announce
\nthe final results on Monday.<\/p>\n
In the manual tabulation, representatives from the provincial
\nKPU offices opened forms displaying the number of votes garnered
\nby each presidential candidate in the July 5 presidential
\nelection in front of KPU members, witnesses, Election Supervisory
\nCommittee (Panwaslu) members and poll observers.<\/p>\n
After reading the manual vote counts from each province,
\nwitnesses representing each presidential candidate were allowed
\nto dispute or approve the counts.<\/p>\n
Panwaslu members, however, were barred from making comments
\nduring the tabulation.<\/p>\n
The KPU opened the forms from 15 provinces, but delayed the
\nverification of the manual vote count in East Java and Riau
\nIslands provinces after finding flaws in the documents.<\/p>\n
The manual vote counts from Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra,
\nRiau, Jambi, South Sulawesi, Bengkulu, Lampung, Bangka Belitung,
\nJakarta, Central Java, Yogyakarta and Banten were verified.<\/p>\n
Witnesses representing Wiranto and Amien, however, refused to
\nsign the documents from all 13 of the provinces.<\/p>\n
Berliana Kartakusumah, a witness for Wiranto, said his team
\nhad found various problems in the tabulations.<\/p>\n
He said a KPU circular declaring \"double punctured\" ballot
\npapers to be valid had caused confusion. Therefore, he said, the
\nKPU circular must be revoked and the ballots recounted.<\/p>\n
A witness for Amien, Bambang Sudibyo, said his camp refused to
\nsign off on the manual vote counts in Aceh and West Sumatra,
\nwhich Amien won, due to inaccuracies in the tabulations.<\/p>\n
He said the manual vote count done by a regional KPU office
\nresulted in 26,000 more votes than calculated by his team, but in
\nother districts the vote count was 50,000 votes lower than
\nexpected.<\/p>\n
\"How can we sign off on the tabulations when we have found
\nvarious inaccuracies? The KPU seems to have ignored our data and
\ninsists on asking us to approve the counts. Of course, we reject
\nit,\" he told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He said his team realized Amien would not qualify for the
\nSept. 20 runoff, but refusing to approve official results that
\nwere considered flawed would teach the public an important
\npolitical lesson.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the refusal of some of the witnesses to sign off
\non the vote counts, KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said the counts
\nwould remain valid.<\/p>\n
He said the documents had been signed by witnesses at the
\nprovincial and lower administrative levels.<\/p>\n
\"If witnesses at the provincial and district levels accepted
\nthe vote tally, logically the witnesses at the national level
\nshould also approve it,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Responding to plans by the Wiranto camp to demand a judicial
\nreview by the Supreme Court of the KPU circular on double
\npunctured ballots, Mulyana said it would not affect the manual
\nvote count process.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/manual-tabulation-confirms-susilos-lead-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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