Golkar wins Tangerang council speakership
Multa Fidrus and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang/Jakarta
Krisna Gunata of the Golkar Party faction won on Wednesday the speakership election at the Tangerang municipal council, following the success of the party in grabbing the top posts at the House of Representatives and the Jakarta City Council in recent elections.
In the election, Krisna garnered 29 votes from the total of 45 councillors, beating rival Bonie Mufidjar of the Prosperous Justice Party faction (PKS), who secured only 15 votes.
Both Golkar, the ruling party during New Order era, and the PKS have eight seats in the council.
PKS faction chairman Wawan Taviv Budiawan blamed Bonie's loss to Krisna on councillors from the National Mandate Party (PAN), accusing them of not keeping their promise to vote for Bonie and instead supporting Krisna.
"I don't believe the five PAN councillors are with us in this struggle for a change within the council," Wawan said.
According to Wawan, Bonie's 15 votes were from his own faction (eight votes), the Democratic Party faction (six votes) and the Benteng Awakening faction, which is a coalition of four minor factions in the council (one vote).
The one remaining vote went to Herry Rumawatine of the Democratic Party faction, the minimum vote required to become deputy speaker.
The municipal council has seven factions: the Golkar faction, PKS, Democratic Party, PAN, the United Development Party (PPP), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Benteng Awakening factions.
After the election, Krisna, who is serving as a municipal councillor for a third term, promised he would help improve the council in accordance with people's demand.
Earlier, Golkar's Tangerang regency branch chairman Adi Suryadarma was elected speaker of the Banten provincial council, while Endang Sujana, also from Golkar, was elected speaker of the Tangerang regency council.
The party also swept up all speaker posts in Lebak and Pandeglang regency councils.
The victory of Golkar veteran Ade Surapriatna in securing the Jakarta Council speaker's post was not without controversy, as many suspected vote-buying involving councillors of the Democratic Party faction.
In Jakarta on Wednesday, two preferred chairmanships, namely that for Commission E on people's welfare and Commission D on development affairs, were secured by Dani Anwar of the PKS and Sayogo Hendrosubroto of PDI-P respectively.
The chairman of Commission A on city institutions and legal affairs went to PPP.
No final decisions were made in Wednesday's closed-door meeting to discuss other chairmanships, along with commission posts of deputy chairmen and secretaries.
PAN and the Democratic Party faction were vying for the chairmanship of Commission B on economic affairs. PAN is likely to secure the chairmanship of Commission C on budgetary affairs.