North Sumatra's first ever direct gubernatorial election heats up

Apriadi Gunawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Medan   |  Fri, 03/14/2008 1:17 AM  |  Headlines

A month ahead of the first ever direct gubernatorial election in North Sumatra, campaign teams said they were fighting it out in a bid to gain candidate votes and consolidate support.

The campaign team behind Tri Tamtomo and running mate Benny Pasaribu said the pair was expected to take the lead across the province's eastern and western coasts.

"We are optimistic Tri and Benny will be able to win 70 percent of votes in Medan, Karo, Binjai, Deli Serdang, Serdang Bedagai, Labuhan Batu and Dairi," said campaign chairman Panda Nababan.

"This is where the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has dominated the past two general elections."

Panda said the Tri-Benny duo would sell anti-poverty and security programs as part of their campaign and would be able to win up to 35 percent of total votes.

Ethnic issues were no longer relevant in the multi-ethnic province, he said.

Ali Umri and Maratua Simanjuntak's campaign team said the pair would dominate the province's east coast and southern Tapanuli, which have been Golkar Party strongholds for the past four decades.

Golkar has seen the emergence of three governor candidates from the party -- Ali, who was nominated by Golkar, and Syamsul Arifin and Abdul Wahab Dalimunthe, who are two senior provincial candidates backed by minority parties.

Ali and Maratua's campaign team chairman Chaidir Ritonga said all regents who were Golkar cadres in the province had expressed their strong commitment for the pair.

Golkar won 21 percent of eight million votes in the 2004 legislative election. It has four regents and a mayor in the province.

Suherdi who was paired with Pematang Siantar mayor R.E. Siahaan said he would play his ethnic card to win support from Javanese descents, the major ethnic group in the province.

"The use of Javanese symbols will be effective to win support from 4.2 million Javanese descents in the eastern coast of the province," he said.

Suherdi, also chairman of the Javanese Ethnic Group (Pujakesuma), said he and Siahaan would win at least 15 percent from Javanese descents.

Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics said Javanese people whose ancestors came to the province during the Dutch colonial era, had formed the largest ethnic group -- some 33 percent of the province's 12.6 million population.

Suherdi said Siahaan said they were busy consolidating support across the eight parties that were behind them.

"He (Siahaan) is expected to be able to win at least 10 percent from Pematang Siantar, Simalungun, Dairi, Toba and Samosir, as well as predominantly Christian Central Tapanuli," he said.

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