Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) councilors reminded their colleagues and members that their recent victory in the island's first direct gubernatorial election meant there would be more work ahead.
Made Mangku Pastika and AA Ngr Puspayoga, the pair of candidates endorsed by the PDI-P, won the July 9 election, with more than 50 percent of the vote.
"We must prove to the people that our candidates are working really hard to turn their political promises into reality," PDI-P councilor I Made Arjaya said Monday.
"If the candidates fail to do so, then we will have a very hard time in the 2009 legislative election," he said.
Arjaya pointed out the performance of Mangku Pastika and Puspayoga in running the next Bali administration would shape the party's image in the minds of Balinese voters. A bad performance would make it harder for the PDI-P leadership to win back the voters' trust in the 2009 election.
The party, Arjaya said, is determined to push the pair to perform well. Stronger monitoring is one way to achieve that.
"We (the councilors) have agreed to convince the pair to focus on the political promises they made during the campaign. We will ask them to prioritize fulfilling them," he said.
As the majority party in the Bali legislative council, the PDI-P councilors will use their power to help secure the pair's priority programs.
Following their victory in 2004's legislative election, the Bali chapter of the PDI-P controls 35 out of 55 seats in Bali's legislative council.
"We will make sure that any programs presented by the pair in the council's upcoming budget session will receive a green light," he said.
The provincial council's annual budget session will take place in mid-August. Regional administration laws say the governor is responsible for drafting the programs to be financed by the budget, but it is the legislative council that has the authority to review and approve the budget. Without the council's consent, the governor cannot disburse budget funds.
Made Arimbawa, another PDI-P councilor, said the budget session would play an important role in determining the pair's ability to fulfill campaign promises.
"What the pair will or will not be able to do in the next five years very much depends on the local budget. Therefore we have to make sure that all the pair's priority programs and campaign promises are included in the provincial annual budget," he said.
The pair's promises include: soft loans for local small and medium enterprises, creating 10,000 new jobs per year, establishing an island-wide security system that meets international standards, constructing the island's first MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system and doubling the island's per capita income.
The Bali General Elections Committee (KPUD) plans to announce the official results of the gubernatorial election on Wednesday morning. The KPUD chairman, AA Oka Wisnumurti, late last week said the official results would be similar to the early results.
The quick count results showed that Mangku Pastika and Puspayoga gained more than 50 percent of votes. In second place was the Golkar pair Cokorda Budi Suryawan-I Nyoman Gede Suweta with 25 percent and in the third place was the Bali Awakening Coalition pair I Gede Winasa-Gusti Bagus Alit Putera with 18 percent.
