Nur Mahmudi still leads Depok election

Nur Mahmudi still leads Depok election

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Muslim scholar Nur Mahmudi Ismail of the Prosperous Justice Party
(PKS) maintained his lead over Badrul Kamal of the Golkar Party
on Monday as elections officials concluded vote counting in two
districts in Depok, West Java.

The Depok Elections Commission (KPUD) head Zulfadli said that
after counting a total of 91,669 votes from Beji and Limo
districts, former Minister of Forestry Nur Mahmudi garnered
44,315 or 48 percent of the total ballots counted, while former
mayor Badrul had 32,954 votes, or 36 percent of the total.

Three other candidates shared the remaining 16 percent.

"We have counted and validated votes in the Beji and Limo
districts. Results from the other districts will be announced
tomorrow," Zulfadli told The Jakarta Post Monday evening.

There are six districts in Depok with a total registered
voters of 908,890.

Beji and Limo, which have 94,000 and 75,000 registered voters
respectively, are medium-sized districts compared to the larger
areas of Sukmajaya, Cimanggis, and Pancoran Mas, each which have
around 200,000 people.

"We have never officially released election results. If they
(other parties) claim that they have the results, then they must
have recapitulated votes directly from polling stations without
our verification," Zulfadli said.

Looking at districts that have submitted their results,
Zulfadli predicted that only 60 percent of voters turned up to
vote in the June 26 election, in which five candidate pairs
contested.

PKS dominated the legislative election in Depok area in 2004,
winning 24.49 percent of the vote of 722,225.

Beside being a former minister, Nur Mahmudi is a popular
Muslim intellectual and former president of Justice Party (PK),
which evolved into the PKS. He is now a lecturer at the Bogor
Agriculture Institute. His running mate, Yuyun, is also a PKS
activist.

Badrul, who resigned as Depok mayor in May to run for a second
term as mayor, is a Golkar activist and an alumni of the Academy
of Local Administration (APDN), with a Bachelors Degree from
Satyagama University in West Jakarta. His running mate
Syihabuddin, of the National Awakening Party (PKB), was a former
treasurer of the PKB in Depok.

Badrul was known as a low-profile mayor of the city, who
received little criticism and muted praise.