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.