Spirit upbeat in Kutai ahead of direct local elections

Spirit upbeat in Kutai ahead of direct local elections

Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Kutai Kartanegara

Heavy rain did not dampen Sudrajat's spirits during a campaign
drive of a regental candidate in Kutai Kartanegara. His shirt
bearing the picture of his favored candidate was wet due to the
rain, but he was unperturbed. He kept dancing along with
thousands of others participating in the campaign held in
Tenggarong, the capital of Kutai Kartanegara regency.

As the campaign function came to an end, he and friends from
Muara Jawa district boarded a truck that would bring them home.
The journey would take an hour, but Sudrajat and friends did not
need to worry as the candidate's campaign team provided them with
abundant food and drink. They did not only get food, but they
also got money as well. And, the money was the very reason that
Sudrajat, a poor farmer, joined every campaign in Kutai
Kartanegara.

Sudrajat said that he had obtained a handsome sum for his
efforts during the two-week campaign period that began on May 15.
In each campaign event, he was given Rp 50,000. Each day, he
fought hard to attend every campaign event of the three regental
candidates so that he could manage to get between Rp 100,000 and
Rp 200,000 a day. "I attend all the campaigns, but whom I will
vote for in the election remains a secret," he smiled, adding
that his friends have also done the same thing.

The Kutai Kartanegara election scheduled to take place on June
1 has drawn national attention as it will be the first ever
direct election of a head of a regional government in the
country.

Kutai Kartanegara General Elections Commission (KPU) has
approved the candidacy of three pairs of regental and deputy
regental hopefuls who will fight to win the prestigious seats in
the resource-rich regency in Kalimantan with a population of
388,466.

The three pairs are Syaukani and Syamsuri Aspar nominated by
the Golkar Party, Aji Sofyan Alex and Irkham nominated by the
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Tadjudin Noor and Abdul Jabbar
nominated by the Pancasila Patriot Party.

The Kutai Kartanegara KPU has earmarked a staggering Rp 22
billion for the election, in which Rp 19 billion was allocated
for the election operations and the remaining Rp 3 billion was
allocated for the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu).

Ischak Iskandar, the chief of Kutai Kartanegara KPU, defended
the Rp 22 billion budget saying it was not excessive as earlier
protested by the media. "The huge fund is realistic as we are
facing geographical constraints. We need a lot of funds as the
distribution of election materials is costly. We have to use
ships and even airplanes to dispatch the election materials to
remote areas," said Ischak.

Ischak said that the Kutai Kartanegara KPU was ready to hold
the election as all election materials had been distributed to
all areas in the regency.