Padang's Zainal fails in reelection bid

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post/Padang

Zainal Bakar, a corruption suspect and former West Sumatra Governor, has failed in his bid to seek reelection this year.

None of the political parties in the province were willing to nominate him to run for governor in the upcoming direct gubernatorial election.

It is an obvious political setback for Zainal, who had struggled mightily in order to be nominated to run for governor again.

Zainal had hoped to be nominated by the Golkar Party, hoping to sway Golkar members by his choice of Golkar legislator Datuk Labuan as his running mate. But Zainal and Datuk lost in the party's internal selection process.

Golkar ended up nominating Leonardi Harmainy and his running mate Rusdi Lubis. Leonardi is currently the speaker of the West Sumatra provincial council, while Rusdi is the secretary of the West Sumatra provincial administration.

Zainal also tried to register with the National Mandate Party, but his application was turned down. Similar to the National Mandate Party, the coalition of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), along with several small parties, had also rejected the candidacy of Zainal.

Zainal's application was at last accepted by the coalition of the United Development Party and the Democrat Party, but he also lost during an internal election. The coalition opted for Kapitra Ampera, a lawyer and his running mate Dalimi Abdullah, a senior government official.

The only coalition or party with whom Zainal did not file an application, was the coalition of the Prosperous Justice Party and the Reform Star Party. That coalition had firmly stated earlier that they would only nominate legislator Irwan Prayitno and councillor Ikasuma Hamid as the party's governor and deputy governor hopefuls.

According to one local political observer, Zainal's failure was a result of most parties now striving for a clean image, while Zainul had obviously been tainted by the corruption case.

Ranny, an observer from Andalas University in Padang, said that the political parties had perceived Zainal to be a liability so they chose to ignore him.

"Zainal is now a suspect in a corruption case, so political parties didn't have the courage to take the risk of being abandoned by the public if they were to choose Zainal," espoused Ranny.

Zainal, who served as West Sumatra Governor from 2000 until earlier this year, has been named a suspect for allegedly embezzling Rp 5.9 billion (US$655,555) from the provincial budget.

The election laws stipulate that those wishing to run for governor must be nominated by a political party or coalition.