Major party nominees sweeping local elections

Major party nominees sweeping local elections

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The strongest political parties flexed their muscles in the
direct elections of regional heads across the country, with their
nominees becoming democratically elected leaders in the landmark
elections.

In Central Java, out of the 11 newly elected leaders in the
mayoral and regental elections, which started on June 5, seven of
them were won by incumbents -- of which five gained support from
the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Three other
incumbents lost.

The five are Kebumen Regent Rustriningsih, Kendal Regent Hendy
Boedoro, Sukoharjo Regent Bambang Riyanto, Magelang Mayor
Fahriyanto and Purbalingga Regent Triyono Budi Sasongko.

Two others -- Blora regent Basuki Widodo from the Golkar Party
and Semarang Mayor Sukawi Sutarip, who is now supported by the
National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP),
National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Prosperous Justice Party
(PKS) -- formerly was with PDI-P.

According to political observer Nur Hidayat Sardini of the
Semarang-based University of Diponegoro, the regents and mayors
won the elections because they had been "campaigning" for five
years during their terms in office, something that newcomers
could not compete against.

"They (the incumbents) became well-known. No matter what
parties they came from, people didn't care. Just like Sukawi
Sutarip in Semarang. He used to be supported by PDI-P and he's a
PDI-P member. When PDI-P refused to support him, the party's
people in the villages still supported him," Nur Hidayat said.

However, the incumbents, whose policies were not popular among
their people, would not garner the votes and lost in the
elections, he said.

"People are smart now. They can be given money, but at the
voting time, they will vote for the one they favor. Money can't
buy them," Nur Hidayat said.

In West Sumatra, the pair of Gamawan Fauzi-Marlis Rahman looks
likely to become the province's governor and deputy governor for
the 2005-2010 term after winning 46.71 percent of the
provisionally counted votes on Tuesday.

Head of the West Sumatra Election Committee, Muftie Syarfie,
predicted that the pair would win, although only 50 percent of
the overall 2.9 million votes had been tallied. He estimated that
from the registered 2.9 million voters, only 70 percent cast
their vote.

The pair, which was nominated by PDI-P and the Crescent Star
Party (PBB), received the most votes in 12 of the province's 19
regencies and municipalities.

In Solok regency where Gamawan, the recipient of the Bung
Hatta Anti Corruption Award 2005, served as a regent and Solok
mayor, won 79.6 percent and 74.5 percent of votes, respectively
in those areas.

In Bandarlampung, PKS's candidates Abdul Hakim-Zainal Iskandar
was still leading the count with 22.93 percent as of 4:30 p.m. on
Tuesday.

They were closely followed by Eddy Sutrisno-Kherlani (PDI-P)
with 22.35 percent; and Sjachrazad Z.P.-Rudy Syawal (Golkar) with
20,99 percent.

With such a close result, the election might be repeated, with
Bandarlampung Election Committee member Nizwar Affandi saying it
might take 21 days to prepare for the second round election.

"We plan to hold plenary meetings to determine the result on
Wednesday and on the second round election preparation the next
day," Nizwar said.

In Surabaya, counting at the Surabaya Election Committee
showed that 50 percent, or around a million of 1.9 registered
voters, did not cast their votes in the city's mayoral election
on Monday. Just hours after the election, the incumbent Bambang
Dwi Hartono had a commanding lead in the provisional vote.

Communication observer from Media Consumers Foundation, Henry
Subiyakto, blamed the lack of familiarization of the elections
for people's reluctance to vote.

"The election committee only informed people of the time to
vote, not telling people how the election would benefit them,"
Henry said.