W

ith three weeks having passed since the elections, and accusations of discrepancies in the ballot-count being lodged by more than a dozen districts, the KPUD has finally tallied up the votes from all five electoral districts.

Of the 94 seats in the city council, 32 went to the Democratic Party, 18 to the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and 11 to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), data from the Jakarta General Election Commission (KPUD) shows.

Trailing next was the United Development Party (PPP) and the Golkar Party, securing seven seats each.

Only 10 of the 38 political parties competing in the 2009 election won seats in the council.

The data also showed that 24 of the 75 current city councilors managed to once again win over voters and their old seats in the elections. Among the winning incumbents was the head of PKS's Jakarta branch Triwisaksana, the head of the city council's Golkar caucus Inggard Joshua and head of the council's commission B on economic affairs Aliman Aat.

The council will this time around also see more female legislators filling seats, with 22 of the 94 places going to women. In the 2004 general elections, only 11 seats were won by female candidates.

Among the incoming women legislators are actress-turned-politician Wanda Hamidah from the National Mandate Party (PAN), the PDI-P's Cinta Mega and 26-year-old rookie candidate Nur Afni Sajim from the Democratic Party.

Experts and NGOs have repeatedly criticized the poor performance of the current council, highlighting its failure to pressure the city administration to address severe social and economic problems, provide better public services and implement social security programs.

Now, as the new council looks set to welcome many new faces among its ranks, there is optimism the incoming body will work in a much more efficient manner.

To prevent another repeat of council failures, Wardah Hafidz, the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) coordinator, urged the public to actively watch the performance of their legislators throughout the next five years.

She also said the public should seek comprehensive information about the background of their councilors' considering scarce details were divulged during the campaign period.

"Most campaigns only provided information about the technical aspects of voting, such as how to find the candidates' names on the ballot," Wardah told the Post recently.

"Meanwhile, their backgrounds remained unclear or incomplete. Only selected records were made public."

A political analyst from the University of Indonesia, Cecep Hidayat, said the new election ruling - which granted legislative seats to the candidates with the most votes - had not significantly improved the overall quality of the council because many voters still made their choice uninformed.

"I'm am not saying the elected candidates are not good," Cecep said. "But given the situation where most voters were easily lured by financial incentives or cultural bonds, it was easily to find many *inexperienced' candidates with strong financial backing and famous family ties making the list of councilors."

As the legislative election ruling saw direct competition between individual candidates, many spent big to fund their campaigns.

Achmat Ismail Rawi, a Golkar candidate from the North Jakarta and Thousand Islands electoral districts, said he spent more than Rp 1 billion (US$96,000) securing his council seat. Meanwhile, the People's Conscience Party's candidate Abdul Kanter Sangadji spent more than Rp 500 million but failed to win a from the East Jakarta electoral district.

A successful incumbent, Aliman Aat, said it would take time for the incoming council to establish strong ties but the presence of a number of incumbents would definitely assist newcomers.

"The incumbents will help the new councilors follow the existing work flow and familiarize themselves with any procedural systems in the council, or when dealing with the city administration," he said.

During the latest interview with the Post, Aliman, who is also secretary of the Democratic Party's Jakarta branch, said his party's top priority was to solve transportations problems in the capital, which had become a serious obstruction to economic growth in the city.