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.
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