PDI may not get a seat on Jakarta council

JAKARTA (JP): The drastic drop in city votes for the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) means that there is a possibility the party will not have a seat on the Jakarta City Council.

As of 7:23 p.m. yesterday, PDI was more than 24,000 votes short of a seat.

With 5,049,422 votes counted, PDI had 100,020 votes, the United Development Party (PPP), 2,106,265 and Golkar, 2,843,137.

Each council member represents 124,223 of the city's 7,453,416 voters.

The city's election committee secretary, Bagus Suharyono, predicted yesterday that all parties that contested in the election would have representatives on the council.

"Just wait until we finish counting votes," said Bagus, the city's social and political affairs directorate head, yesterday.

An official of the city's election committee revealed the latest available data from mayoralties from yesterday morning's tallies.

In Central Jakarta, PPP got 35.8 percent or 275,157 votes; Golkar, 62.5 percent or 480,240; and PDI, 1.6 percent or 12,388 votes.

In North Jakarta, PPP got 37.6 percent or 296,785 votes; Golkar, 60.1 percent or 475,057 votes; and PDI, 2.3 percent or 18,232 votes.

In West Jakarta, PPP got 37.7 percent or 422,181 votes; Golkar, 60.2 percent or 673,116 votes; and PDI, 2.1 percent or 23,338 votes.

Closest competition was in South Jakarta, where PPP got 48.5 percent or 536,211 votes; Golkar, 49.8 percent or 551,368 votes; and PDI, 1.7 percent or 18,606 votes.

In East Jakarta, PPP got 43.9 percent or 571,462 votes; Golkar, 54.2 percent or 704,610 votes; and PDI, 1.9 percent or 24,525 votes.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja refused to comment on the possibility of PDI not being represented.

"Just wait... it (the vote counting) hasn't finished yet. We haven't received votes from overseas," he said.

PPP deputy chairman, Saud Rachman, rejected the suggestion that the successful contestants help PDI.

"There's no way we will make a deal to give away our votes in order to give seats to PDI," he said. "If the party didn't get a seat, that's its own problem, not ours.

"If there's going to be a deal, there's no point in holding a general election."

Saud said some provinces did not have PPP or PDI representatives on the council. Bali and East Nusa Tenggara councils did not have PPP representatives, and South Sulawesi did not have any PDI.

"If we were to give away our votes to another party, it's the same as (political) engineering," he said.

Executives from PDI's city-chapter were not available for comment yesterday.

The three parties are vying for 60 of 75 seats on the City Council. Golkar currently has 31 seats, PPP has 15 seats, and PDI has 14. Fifteen seats are reserved for Armed Forces members who do not vote. Of the 353 candidates for seats, PPP has 119 and Golkar and PDI both have 117.

Election committee data shows that there were 12,482 polling booths in the city, with each serving around 600 voters. Central Jakarta had 1,855 booths, North Jakarta, 1,848, West Jakarta, 2,737, South Jakarta, 2,739 and West Jakarta, 3,303. Mobile polling booths served hospitals and prisons. (ste)