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.