Golkar gaining ground in areas outside Java
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) maintained on Wednesday its lead, but the vote counting result as of 11 p.m. showed Golkar was slowly gaining ground by leading in provinces outside Java.
According to the website of the General Elections Commission (KPU), last updated at 10:23 p.m., votes had been tallied from 20 of the 27 provinces.
Earlier observations that Golkar should not be written off were confirmed by early results from the provinces. The ruling party led in Jambi, Southeast Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West and East Kalimantan and West Nusa Tenggara.
Golkar was trailing PDI Perjuangan in West Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lampung, West Java, Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, Riau and was second to the National Mandate Party (PAN) in West Sumatra.
Golkar was third in the provinces of Yogyakarta and East Java.
Among those known as "reformist parties" only PAN led in West Sumatra and was second in Yogyakarta. The National Awakening Party (PKB) led in East Java and was second in Central Java.
Quoting data from district polling committees nationwide fed into the Joint Operations Media Center (JOMC) computer system, operational director Ross Mackay said on Wednesday that 8,826,011 votes, or at least seven percent of approximately 100 million eligible votes nationwide, had been tallied by 10:15 p.m.
JOMC helps to provide reliable but still unofficial results from the KPU.
Data from the center sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday night before being fed into the system stated that PDI Perjuangan led the vote tally with 3,015,133 votes.
Second was the ruling Golkar party with 1,871,877 votes, followed by the National Awakening Party (PKB) with 1,050,911 votes, the United Development Party (PPP) with 926,786 votes and PAN with 701,558 votes. Sixth position was held by the Crescent Star Party (PBB) with 204,193 votes and seventh was the Justice Party (PK) with 133,492 votes.
Mackay said delays in the relaying of election results were mainly due to slow tallying in polling stations across the country, with polling officials having to check and recheck data before sending it to district polling committees.
"District polling committees nationwide phone or fax us the results. Within two minutes of receiving the results, data is immediately fed into the computer system," Mackay told the Post.
He denied earlier statements that all results would be available in 36 hours.
Separately, chairman of the National Elections Committee (PPI) Jakob Tobing acknowledged public concern over possible vote rigging, which he said stemmed from the trauma of past elections.
"That (fear) is reasonable," he told Antara, promising results free of manipulation by June 21 when the official announcement of vote counting will be made.
Meanwhile, police were bracing for a possible upsurge of street rallies and protests over the ballot counting result. Jakarta City Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman said police have collected information about groups, including university students, planning to stage rallies.
Security would be beefed up in several parts of the capital to prevent "anarchic" protests that could disrupt public order, he said. The spots, he said, included the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, the General Elections Commission building on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Hotel Aryaduta, where the vote counting process is being held, and the offices of political parties.
"Those are possible targets for protest," he said. "I believe not many people understand the new ballot counting being employed in the process, so they might become dissatisfied if results are not as they expected."
Noegroho added that police should thank rumormongers who had been cautioning people of possible unrest before and during the elections, because they put the public on alert and forced improved safety measures for themselves and their neighborhoods. (anr/emf/swe/ylt)