Muhammad Nafik, ID Nugroho and Indra Harsaputra , The Jakarta Post , Surabaya | Thu, 07/24/2008 10:40 AM | Headlines
The tight East Java gubernatorial race looks set to go to the second round after none of the five pairs of candidates managed to secure more than 30 percent of the vote, the threshold required by the 2008 regional administration law.
The quick count results indicate the pair of Soekarwo and Saefullah Yusuf will face their strongest opponents Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Mudjiono in the second round of the election.
Soekarwo won the first round with 26.58 percent of the vote and Khofifah came second with 24.85 percent, according to a quick count conducted by the Indonesian Survey Circle.
A similar quick count undertaken by the Indonesian Survey Institute also put Soekarwo-Saefullah in first place with 26.95 percent of the vote, with Khofifah as runner up with 25.40 percent.
A quick count by the research and development department of daily newspaper, Kompas, had less of a gap between the two teams, giving Soekarwo 25.51 percent of the vote, and the pair of Khofifah and Mudjiono 25.36 percent.
In third and fourth places were Sutjipto and Ridwan Hisjam with around 25 percent and Soenarjo and Ali Maschan Moesa with around 19 percent.
The least popular candidates were Achmady and Soehartono, who won less than 8 percent of the vote.
Under the law, a second round must be held 60 days after the first round if none of the candidates gets 30 percent of the vote or more.
The official results of the tally will be made public on Aug. 3.
The quick count results also showed about 60 percent of the more than 29 million eligible voters turned out to vote.
The three pollsters each said they counted the votes from samples taken from about 400 of the 62,015 polling booths across East Java.
East Java is the stronghold of both the fractured National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
The distribution of the vote showed that parties and leaders were not a key issue in the local direct election, political analysts said.
They added the split in the PKB and the lack of solid support from Nahdlatul Ulama, the nation's biggest Muslim organization, benefited both Soekarwo and his strongest rival Khofifah in the race.
Indonesian Survey Circle research director Eka Kusmayadi said the two rival candidates managed to capitalize on the internal conflict in the PKB.
"Aside from that, Khofifah also benefited from the gender issue that meant most women voted for her," he told The Jakarta Post.
But Eka said the election outcome could change in the revote as Khofifah and Soekarwo were "not dominant figures" in East Java.
Adam Kamil of the Indonesian Survey Institute said an election runoff between Soekarwo and Khofifah had something to do with the funds the two contenders spent on their campaigns.
Khofifah won the most votes in north coastal part of the province, which is among the PDI-P's strongholds, Adam said.
Overall, the gubernatorial election ran smoothly and peacefully around the province despite minor election violations, East Java election supervisory committee chairman Sri Sugeng said.
He said the violations included the vote counting being held in several polling booths in Madura before the scheduled time of 1 p.m.
East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Herman S. Sumawiredja said the election took place without any "extraordinary incidents".
In some electoral districts considered to be prone to security disturbances, such as Madura, Malang and Lumajang, the election was also peaceful, he added.
Residents of those three districts also voted for new regional heads on the same day as the gubernatorial election.
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