Candidates stay cool ahead of election results
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta
The two presidential election front-runners appear set to take their success in their stride, while supporters of the candidates who are likely to be eliminated from the race say they have no special plans for when the General Elections Commission (KPU) announces the results of the July 5 election on Monday.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will remain at his residence in Cikeas, Bogor, West Java, on Monday, while Megawati Soekarnoputri will have a busy day at either the State Palace or her official residence on Jl. Teuku Umar in Menteng, Central Jakarta.
"Bapak is always calm, even now while waiting for the results of the July 5 election," an aide to Susilo told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
The four-star retired Army general is planning to meet the press at around 12:30 a.m. after the official announcement of the qualifiers for the runoff election on Sept. 20.
Susilo, who is also the former coordinating minister for political and security affairs, is leading the provisional tally, followed by incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
As off 10:30 p.m., with at least 96,356,976 votes, or around 90 percent, of the some 118 million votes counted from 30 provinces, the Susilo-Jusuf Kalla ticket had won 32,567,910 votes, or 33.6 percent.
The Megawati-Hasyim Muzadi ticket was in second place with 26,367,159 votes or 27.4 percent.
The Wiranto-Solahuddin Wahid ticket was on 20,899,766 votes, or 21.7 percent, the Amien Rais-Siswono Yudohusodo ticket 13,811,087, or 14.3 percent, and the Hamzah Haz-Agum Gumelar ticket 2,711,053 votes, or just 2.7 percent.
Less than 15 million remaining votes from two provinces, West Java and West Irian Jaya, were still being counted by the KPU.
The results of the manual tabulation of votes from the six provinces of East Java, Banten, East Nusa Tenggara, Central and East Kalimantan, and South Sulawesi were still problematic as the campaign teams of both Wiranto and Amien were refusing to endorse them.
Megawati will have a hectic schedule, including chairing a limited Cabinet meeting.
"Ibu will either be at the Palace or her official residence on Jl. Teuku Umar when the announcement is made. We will issue a press release soon after the official announcement is made by the KPU," Pramono Anung Wibowo, the deputy secretary-general of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), told the Post.
Two other tickets -- Wiranto-Solahuddin of the Golkar Party and Amien Rais-Siswono of the National Mandate Party (PAN) appear to be unwilling to go quietly, however, and are refusing to sign the results of the manual count. The two pairings are currently in third and fourth places respectively, according to the manual count.
As of Sunday, neither Wiranto nor Amien had planned anything special to mark the announcement of the election results by the KPU on Monday.
Members of the Hamzah Haz-Agum Gumelar camp, which garnered only 3 percent of the vote according to the provisional count, also admitted they had nothing special planned for Monday, saying that Hamzah, the current Vice President, would be at work in his office when the results were announced.
Meanwhile, talks among politicians on the forging of coalitions ahead of the runoff election continued with Golkar Party leader Akbar Tandjung saying that a coalition with Megawati was more feasible than one with Susilo.
"It is feasible in the sense that they (the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) could build a strong government if they received the support of the Golkar Party," Akbar was quoted as saying by Antara over the weekend.
He further said that he had discussed the possibility of a coalition with Megawati and also with Kalla. Megawati has also clearly stated that she was seeking Golkar support.
Golkar came first in the April 5 legislative election with 128 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR), compared to the PDI- P's 109 seats.