PKS candidates strengthen lead in Depok poll
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 Wednesday as election officials concluded vote counting in four districts in Depok, West Java.
Depok General Elections Commission (KPUD) head Zulfadli said that after counting votes from Beji, Limo, Sawangan and Cimanggis, former Minister of Forestry Nur Mahmudi had garnered 105,050 or 45 percent of around 237,000 ballots counted, while former mayor Badrul had gained 101,277 votes or 42 percent of the total.
Three other candidates shared the remaining 13 percent.
Around 909,000 of Depok's 1.2 million population were eligible to vote at 1,923 polling stations across the municipality on June 26, but according to Zulfadli, only around 60 percent of registered voters actually cast their votes.
"We have finished counting and validating results from Sawang and Cimanggis districts. We hope we can finish counting votes from two other districts in the next two or three days," Zulfadli told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday evening.
Ballots from two districts -- Sukmajaya and Pancoran Mas -- are expected to be counted and validated on Thursday.
Beji, Limo, Sawangan and Cimanggis, which have fewer than 100,000 registered voters, are considered medium-sized districts compared to Sukmajaya and Pancoran Mas districts, which have around 200,000 eligible voters each.
Zulfadli said that the sooner the KPUD finished the vote counting the better it would be for the public as they would know who won the June 26 poll, the first direct elections for mayor in the municipality.
PKS dominated the legislative elections in Depok in 2004, winning 24.49 percent of total 722,225 votes.
Zulfadli said looking at districts that had submitted their results only around 60 percent of total registered voters had cast their ballots.
He said the situation was calm on Thursday after supporters of certain candidates held rallies on Tuesday at the KPUD and asked for a recount and even a rerun.
"We can now proceed with the counting process peacefully," he said.
Over 100 supporters of Badrul rallied in front of Depok KPUD on Tuesday morning to protest against the counting process that they claimed was marred by cheating. The protesters came from various groups, including the National Movement on Succession, Depok Coalition for Justice and Depok Youth Organization.
Later in the day, supporters of Badrul and Nur Mahmudi almost came to blows in front of three district KPUD offices which were counting the votes.
The tension prompted security officers to deploy police personnel in the districts to separate them.
Five pairs of candidates participated in the Depok elections, namely Abdul Wahab and Ilham Wijaya of the Democratic Party, Harun Heryana and Farkhan AR of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Badrul Kamal and Syihabuddin of the Golkar Party, Yus Ruswandi and Soetadi Dipowongso of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Nur Mahmudi and Yuyun Wirasaputra of PKS.