Kutai election challenged

Kutai election challenged

KUTAI KARTANEGARA, East Kalimantan: A candidate in the recent
Kutai Kartanegara regency election refused to sign the final vote
count on Wednesday to make the vote official.

"Before the Kutai Kartanegara Election Committee counts the
votes and announces the winner, it should look at reports of
violations," the candidate, Sofyan Alex, said on Wednesday.

According to the unofficial final vote tally, the pair of
Syaukani and Syamsuri won the election and will served as regent
and deputy regent for the 2005 to 2010 term of office. The
candidates, nominated by the Golkar Party, won 159,303 votes
according to the uncertified election results.

The candidates Aji Sofyan Alex and running mate M. Irkham,
nominated by the National Mandate Party and the Prosperous
Justice Party, received 88,625 votes, according to the unofficial
results.

This preliminary vote tally had the pair of Tajuddin Noor-
Abdul Jabar Bukran, who were nominated by several parties,
including United Development Party, with 13,862 votes. There were
261,790 valid votes cast in the election, while another 3,894
votes were thrown out for various reasons.

"Reported election violations are still being investigated,
and we should respect the process until the authorities
officially declare the election proceeded according to all
regulations," Sofyan said, adding that if the court ordered it
the election would have to be repeated.

The head of the Election Supervisory Committee, Ischak
Iskandar, played down Sofyan's refusal to sign off on the
election results, saying the vote count was legitimate and that
Syaukani and Syamsuri were the elected regent and deputy regent,
respectively.

The new regent and deputy regent are scheduled to be
inaugurated on July 8. -- JP