Direct elections peaceful in Java

Suherdjoko and A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Pekalongan/Jakarta

After successful direct elections in Kutai Kartanegara regency last week, direct regional elections were held on Sunday in Pekalongan and Cilegon municipalities and Kebumen regency.

Like the landmark Kutai Kartanegara elections, the direct elections in the municipalities and regency on Java island proceeded peacefully, leading to optimism for similar success in the series of elections that will take place in 200 regencies and mayoralties nationwide this year.

In Pekalongan, Central Java, enthusiast voters began lining up at polling stations across the municipality at 8 a.m. Voters continued to trickle into the polling stations until they closed at 2 p.m.

The mayoral election was a colorful affair, with poll committees at the different polling stations doing what they could to make the vote a true event that residents could enjoy. The committee at the polling station in Tegal Rejo subdistrict wore traditional Javanese clothing, to the delight of residents and guests.

The police and military maintained a larger than usual presence in the city during the voting, with each polling station guarded by at least one security personnel.

Security was so tight because of fears of possible violence in Pekalongan, which has been a flash point for political unrest in recent years. In 1999 legislative elections in the city were marred by a clash between supporters of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP), injuring dozens of people.

However, there were no signs of trouble during the vote on Sunday.

According to a provisional tall on Sunday afternoon, the pair of Basyir Achmad and Abu Almafachir, nominated by the Golkar Party, were in the lead with 51.25 percent of the votes that had been counted.

Of the three other pairs of candidates, the nearest were Timur Susilo and Urip Sunarjo with 26.31 percent of the votes.

Despite the seemingly convincing lead of the Golkar candidates, the election still cannot be called because only 3,000 votes from a total of 190,030 eligible voters had been counted as of Sunday afternoon.

In Kebumen regency, also in Central Java, Antara news agency reported the pair of Rustriningsih, who is seeking reelection, and Muhammad Nashirudin Al Mansyur had a convincing 79 percent of votes counted in 10 of 26 districts in the regency.

The pair, nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), was well ahead of the three other pairs of candidates. The nearest candidates were Ananto Tri Sasongko and Suprapto, nominated by the Golkar Party, who had some 10 percent of the vote in the provisional tally. There are 864,000 eligible voters in the regency.

Suroto, the acting regent of Kebumen, said on Sunday there had been no reports of poll fraud.

The only hint of trouble on Sunday occurred during the elections in Cilegon municipality, Banten, where allegations of poll fraud were raised. At polling station 18 in Rawa Arum subdistrict, the poll committee discarded 211 voter cards because the names on the cards were unknown to the committee.

At polling station 24 in Jombang Wetan subdistrict, police officers arrested two people distributing coupons for free ice cream and meatball soup to voters.

Poll witnesses expressed outrage over the coupon giveaway and the situation threatened to get out of hand, but police officers moved in and took the two men away for questioning. The men, who were poll committee members, said they were simply handing out coupons to get more people to vote.