Bambang leading in Surabaya poll

Indra Harsaputra and ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Just hours after the city mayoral election was over, incumbent Bambang Dwi Hartono had a commanding lead in the provisional vote with 50.6 percent, from 1,027 polling stations, about one-fifth of the total in Surabaya.

Bambang, who has partnered up with media mogul Arif Afandi, is likely to maintain his lead in more than other 3,800 polling stations across the second largest city in the country still to be tallied. Bambang was nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Surabaya was relatively quiet on Monday when more than 1.9 million voters were expected to cast their votes in the first ever direct election for mayor, but by mid-day observers were convinced that the number of voters who decided not to cast their votes would be quite high.

"I predict the number of those who did not use their right to vote will increase way above those of last year's election," Eko Waluyo, a staff member of the General Elections Committee (KPU), told The Jakarta Post. He was referring to last year's presidential election where the number of those who chose not to cast their votes in the city was 28 percent.

Some of the total of 4,872 polling stations devised different methods to lure voters to come. In polling station number 10 in Menanggal, southern Surabaya, election staffers provided the famous East Java Soto Madura soup for each voter who came.

In another polling station in Kebonsari, also in southern Surabaya, election staffers donned soccer player outfits to enliven the election. The polls closed at 1 p.m. across the city.

"I wanted people to feel relaxed about casting their votes," Yuwono, an poll staffer told the Post.

Monday was declared a public holiday. Only banks were allowed to open. Turnout in a number of polling stations visited by the Post was only about 50 percent. Traffic in the city has been less than heavy even in the normally congested areas.

Reeling behind the incumbent was Alisjahbana who had just 20.8 percent from the 1,027 polling stations with his partner Wahyudin Husein who were nominated by the National Awakening Party (PKB).

In short, the fight for the position has come down to the two arch-rivals in the city: PDI-P and PKB, both traditionally strong in East Java. If early returns remain consistent, PDI-P's candidate will beat PKB's candidate by a convincing margin.

Late on Monday, the two other candidate teams were trailing behind the leader -- Erlangga Satriagung-A.H. Thony (18.9 percent) and Gatot Sudjito-Benyamin Hilly (9.6 percent). Low voter turnout also occurred in the prisons in Surabaya.

Only 86 voters cast their votes at Medaeng prison house out of 949 detainees. The KPU decided that only 264 detainees were eligible to vote, but most of them either did not receive their voting cards on time or had their cards taken away by their relatives.

"The number of voters declined by 70 percent compared to the presidential elections in October," Marlik Subiyanto, an employee at Medaeng Prison, told the Post.

Marlik cited stricter regulations and the lack of support on the part of the KPU in this election as the key reasons behind the decline.

At the police detention facility, 20 detainees were unable to cast their votes because they did not have voting cards for similar reasons.

KPU staffer, Eko Sasmito, dismissed the lack of communication as the reason for the voters to lose their rights.

"The election itself was conducted in a hurried fashion," he explained.