Nearly 70 percent of Jakarta counted, Mooryati sitting pretty

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Around 70 percent of some six million ballot papers in Jakarta have been counted as of Saturday at 8 p.m., the sixth day after the April 5 legislative election.

The figure of the ballot papers was different compared to the data of eligible voters of 6,478,005 recorded by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) during the registration period.

The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) had finished counting 4.21 million ballot papers for the City Council (DPRD) and 4.11 million ballot papers for a new body called the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) as of 8 p.m.

The KPUD counters made significant progress on Saturday compared to Friday when they only had around 3.3 million for the DPRD and 2.3 million for the DPD.

The KPUD chairman Mohamad Taufik has repeatedly expressed his optimism that the ballot counting would finish on schedule.

Cosmetics queen Mooryati Soedibyo was still leading the race for the top DPD post with 428,058 votes in the provisional results, followed by Sarwono Kusumaatmadja with 418,962 votes.

Radio personality Biem Triani Benyamin, a Betawi (native Jakarta) people, is comfortably in third place with 328,804 votes. The last DPD spot is a battle between Marwan Batubara and Bambang Warih Koesoema with 290,757 and 271,848 votes, respectively.

For the DPRD, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) still leads the provisional results with 961,938 votes, trailed by Democratic Party in the second place with 885,314 votes and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 566,219 votes.

The United Development Party (PPP) surprisingly took over the fourth position with 383,379 votes from Golkar Party who was fifth with 350,566 votes.

From the six million votes, the parties are vying for the 75 seats in the Jakarta City Council DPRD. At present the projected number of seats will be between 15 and 18 for the Democrats and between 17 and 20 for PKS, followed by PDI-P with at least 10 seats.