South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo has resigned as a civil servant following his appointment as provincial chapter chairman of the Golkar Party for the period 2009 to 2014, during the 8th provincial party conference in Makassar on Sunday evening.
According to Syahrul, he has tendered his resignation to the home minister. "I have tendered my resignation as a civil servant, but there is not yet a response from the home minister. It is probably in process," he said after being elected.
The election involved intensive activity, beginning at noon on Sunday and the decision to elect Syahrul as head was arrived at later, at night.
Apart from Syahrul, the outgoing South Sulawesi Golkar Party chairman Ilham Arief Sirajuddin who is mayor of Makassar also joined the electoral race, thus creating two competing camps.
The decision to eventually reach a unanimous decision in the election was proposed by Golkar Party national board chairman Aburizal Bakrie. When he opened the provincial conference, he repeatedly called on participants to negotiate and reach a consensus in electing a new leader.
After the election, Syahrul said the election process was fair, since he was finally elected by agreement.
"I was chosen based on the outcome of a consensus and it is justifiable in the process of democracy. It is a more democratic way because no one was disadvantaged," he said.
Ilham said he accepted the defeat in the election because he had only joined in the contest for the sake of Golkar's future good, especially in achieving Golkar's mission of winning the 2014 election and in contesting every direct regional leadership election. South Sulawesi is due to hold 11 direct regional elections next year.
Meanwhile, the North Sumatra General Elections Commission (KPUD) has urged Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie to take a clear position on the party's seat which remained vacant in the provincial legislature, secured by Binjai Mayor Ali Umri.
Umri, who is also North Sumatra Golkar Party chairman, was appointed as provincial legislative member for 2009 to 2014, but was not yet willing to be sworn in to his new position because he still holding the post of mayor of Binjai.
Umri explained that he would take up the legislative seat after his term as Banjai mayor ended in 2010.
North Sumatra KPUD head Irham Buana Nasution said Umri's position on not being willing to be sworn in as provincial legislator on the grounds of being the mayor of Binjai was very unethical.
He said Umri should have relinquished his post as mayor when he was elected as provincial legislator so as to avoid this situation.
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