Susilo, Mega to vie for presidency
Susilo, Mega to vie for presidency
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The General Elections Commission (KPU) declared on Monday that
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his former boss, Megawati
Soekarnoputri, will fight for the presidency in September.
At the conclusion of its explosion-interrupted plenary meeting
the KPU confirmed that Susilo and Jusuf Kalla finished first with
39,838,184 votes, or 33.57 percent of 118.6 million valid
ballots. Megawati and her running mate, Hasyim Muzadi, were
second with 31,569,104 votes (26.6 percent).
The other three tickets, Wiranto-Solahuddin Wahid, Amien Rais-
Siswono Yudohusodo and Hamzah Haz-Agum Gumelar, failed to make it
to the final round. Their combined vote of 47.3 million will
throw the two-horse race wide open.
According to the law on presidential elections, the top two
pairs advance to the runoff if no ticket wins an outright
majority.
In its decree signed by chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin, the
KPU set a Sept. 20 date for the showdown.
Over 155 million voters were registered for the unprecedented,
direct presidential election.
All nine KPU members attended the special plenary meeting to
approve the manual tallying, which began at 10 a.m., but was
suspended when a minor explosion occurred and damaged a women's
rest room on the first floor of the commission's building at
around 1 p.m. The meeting restarted three hours later.
Protests marked the manual tabulation, mostly from witnesses
representing the losing candidates.
The witnesses from the Amien-Siswono team protested a number
of inaccuracies in the report submitted by provincial KPU
offices.
They claimed they had lost up to 19,000 votes in the district
of Pasar Alam, South Sumatra, and discovered 13,954 additional
votes in Banyu Asin district, South Kalimantan.
Witnesses from the Wiranto-Solahuddin and Amien-Siswono
tickets said they would challenge the election results in the
Constitutional Court and ask the Supreme Court for judicial
review of a KPU decree that certified double-perforated ballots.
Millions of ballots had double punctures as voters did not
unfold the papers beforehand. Due to their huge number, the KPU
issued an abrupt circular that declared them valid, forcing
recounts at thousands of polling stations.
Sayuti Asyatri, a witness from the Amien-Siswono team, said
the circular failed to reach numerous polling stations in remote
areas.
Responding to the complaints, KPU member Rusadi Kantaprawira
said the KPU could not discuss an issue that had been agreed at
provincial and district levels.
Witnesses representing the Megawati-Hasyim, Susilo-Kalla and
Hamzah-Agum tickets accepted the results, but asked the KPU for
more transparency and willingness to listen to suggestions from
the public.
KPU chairman Nazaruddin said his office was ready for the
ensuing legal battle. "Legal action will safeguard the nation's
democratization process," he said.
For KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti, the low turnout was
all that disappointed him.
"Compared with the voter turnout in the legislative election,
participation in the presidential election was lower," he said.
Voter turnout, he said, in the July 5 presidential election
was estimated at about 76 percent, compared with 86 percent in
the April 5 legislative election.
Mega Center members Adang Ruchiyatna and Irma Hutabarat said
the election results were encouraging and expressed optimism the
incumbent president, Megawati, could win the runoff.
"We can attract about 40 percent of voters in the second
round. We can make it, as Megawati, as president, has not yet
communicated all her policies to the public. In the future she
will get closer to the people," said Irma, the center's
spokeswoman.
Despite the protest, chairman of the Amien Rais Center Jeffrie
Geovanie said the presidential candidate from the National
Mandate Party would accept the election results.
He predicted that most of Amien's supporters would swing to
the Susilo-Kalla ticket, as some surveys have suggested.
More stories -- Page 4, 5
Editorial -- Page 6