JP/5/GOVERNOR

JP/5/GOVERNOR

West Sumatra Governor fails in reelection bid

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb
The Jakarta Post/Padang

Zainal Bakar, a corruption suspect and former West Sumatra
Governor, has failed in his bid to seek reelection this year.

None of the political parties in the province were willing to
nominate him to run for governor in the upcoming direct
gubernatorial election.

It is an obvious political setback for Zaenal, who had
struggled mightily in order to be nominated to run for governor
again.

Zainal had hoped to be nominated by the Golkar Party, hoping
to sway Golkar members by his choice of Golkar legislator Datuk
Labuan as his running mate. But Zainul and Datuk lost in the
party's internal selection process.

Golkar ended up nominating Leonardi Harmainy and his running
mate Rusdi Lubis. Leonardi is currently the speaker of the West
Sumatra provincial council, while Rusdi is the secretary of the
West Sumatra provincial administration.

Zainal also tried to register with the National Mandate Party,
but his application was turned down. Similar to the National
Mandate Party, the coalition of the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI-P), along with several small parties, had also
rejected the candidacy of Zainal.

Zainal's application was at last accepted by the coalition of
the United Development Party and the Democrat Party, but he also
lost during an internal election. The coalition opted for Kapitra
Ampera, a lawyer and his running mate Dalimi Abdullah, a senior
government official.

The only coalition or party with whom Zainal did not file an
application, was the coalition of the Prosperous Justice Party
and the Reform Star Party. That coalition had firmly stated
earlier that they would only nominate legislator Irwan Prayitno
and councillor Ikasuma Hamid as the party's governor and deputy
governor hopefuls.

According to one local political observer, Zainul's failure
was a result of most parties now striving for a clean image,
while Zainul had obviously been tainted by the corruption case.

Ranny, an observer from Andalas University in Padang, said
that the political parties had perceived Zainal to be a liability
so they chose to ignore him.

"Zainal is now a suspect in a corruption case, so political
parties didn't have the courage to take the risk of being
abandoned by the public if they were to choose Zainal," espoused
Ranny.

Zainal, who served as West Sumatra Governor from 2000 until
earlier this year, has been named a suspect for allegedly
embezzling Rp 5.9 billion (US$655,555) from the provincial
budget.

The election laws stipulate that those wishing to run for
governor must be nominated by a political party or coalition.