Governor-elect I Made Mangku Pastika's road to governorship is all but assured as there are no legal paths available to challenge the election results, an official says.
I Gusti Putu Artha, a member of the National Election Commission (KPU), said Monday that the other candidates could not legally challenge the results after a three-day deadline expired.
Artha further said a legal challenge would be insignificant as Pastika and running mate Puspayoga, nominated by the National Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), had won a landslide victory in the July 9 election.
In the island's first direct gubernatorial election the Pastika-Puspayoga pair garnered 55 percent of the vote compared to the 26.7 percent received by Golkar Party candidates Cokorda Budi Suryawan and Nyoman Gede Suweta and the 18.25 percent that went to Democratic Party candidates Gede Winasa and IGB Alit Putra.
"Basically, there's no stopping Pastika from being installed on August 28," Artha said during a meeting with reporters in Denpasar.
Artha was responding to a recent controversy regarding Pastika's position as an active police officer during his campaign.
Pastika was a three-star police general who served as the executive director of the National Narcotics Agency when he announced his candidacy.
Under the National Police Law, active police officers are prohibited from running in general elections.
Prior to election day, Bali KPUD head AA Oka Wisnumurti had vouched for Pastika's status, saying the former general had submitted a resignation letter to National Police chief Gen. Sutanto.
Wisnumurti also disclosed that Sutanto had given Pastika official permission to run in the election.
"The police did not have any problem with Pastika running for governorship, therefore the KPUD is convinced that legally speaking Pastika's candidacy is valid," he said at that time.
Wisnumurti's statement left the controversy temporarily in the shadows. When Pastika was announced the winner, however, the controversy emerged anew.
Several Democratic Party politicians declared they would contest Pastika's status in court.
They reasoned that during his candidacy, Pastika only held a temporary resignation letter from Sutanto instead of resigning completely before running.
But Artha said Pastika's status as a public official was clear and in compliance with both the relevant regulation and KPUD's 2008 regulation that allows any public official to resign temporarily from his or her position.
"The legal term is temporary. Whether the term "serving" becomes a problem or not is not for the KPU to decide; it's the police," Arta said.
"If the police see Pastika's running as a candidate to merit disciplinary action, that's a decision Sutanto must make."
Artha added that Sutanto had personally called him to approve Pastika's candidacy.
Pastika ended up winning six of eight regions in Bali: Denpasar municipality and Badung, Klungkung, Tabanan, Bangli and Buleleng regencies.
Pastika became popular in Bali when he led a police investigation into Bali's first terrorist bombing in 2002.
One of his priorities as governor, Pastika said, would be disbursing collateral-free work loans for small and medium enterprises. He also promised to create 10,000 new jobs per year.
