Protest heat up over Depok poll

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tempers flared on Monday against the West Java High Court's ruling annulling the victory of Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) candidate Nur Mahmudi Ismail in the Depok mayoral election despite calls for peaceful protests.

More than 1,000 PKS supporters scuffled with police in front of the Depok Council building on Monday as they tried to force their way into the heavily guarded compound.

The supporters, consisting of members of the PKS and several other Islamic groups in Depok, arrived at the council building at 12:45 p.m. carrying banners and posters denouncing the court verdict that declared Golkar Party candidate Badrul Kamal the winner of the June 26 Depok election.

"We want to confirm whether the council sent an official letter to the West Java governor about the poll result and its recommendation to inaugurate Nur Mahmudi," Saleh, one of the protesters, told The Jakarta Post.

After several minutes of consolidation, they started pushing police personnel guarding the building in an attempt to meet the councillors.

Fearing that the demonstrators would engage in anarchic acts, a group of police officers, who had been guarding the building since early morning, sealed off the entrance.

Not wanting to give up, Nur Mahmudi's supporters pushed the police to force their way into the compound.

The police, who appeared to be ordered to defend the doors, pushed back and it is likely a clash would have broken out between the two sides had the councillors not announced that they were willing to meet with the protesters.

Depok council deputy chairman Amri Yusra, who met the protesters, said that they were trying to find out whether the letter had been received by the governor or not.

"We sent a letter on July 25. We don't know if the letter has been received by the governor. We need time to examine where the letter is," he told the crowd.

Amri then read out a copy of the letter in front of the protesters.

The letter asked the governor to notify the minister of home affairs about the Depok poll result.

After an hour of dialog, the protesters left the council building.

However, they gave the council three days to make sure the letter was received by the governor.

"If within three days the council has not delivered the letter to the governor, we will come again," protest coordinator Roy Prygina said.