Based on a preliminary quick-count by the Semarang General Elections Commission (KPUD), some 80 percent of polling stations showed that the pair, backed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), won about 34 percent of the 166,173 cast in the election.

The couple was followed by Mahfudz Ali and Anis Nugroho, who gained support from the Democratic Party, with 152,141 votes or 31.16 percent.

Of the 523,208 votes cast on the day, 35,035 were deemed invalid by the KPUD.

Only 523,208 people voted during the Sunday election — or 40 percent of the 1,100,335 eligible voters.
Hasyim Asy’ari, a political observer from Semarang’s Diponegoro University, said it was difficult to read into the low turn out.

“Candidates from the Democratic Party often lose to those from the PDI-P despite winning the 2009 legislative election,” he said.

“I think that if voters are in a happy mood they will vote, but if not they won’t.”

Semarang KPUD head Hakim Junaidi said 80 percent of the total 2,802 polling stations in the region had announced their vote counts online.

“The KPUD will announce the official results of the manual vote counting on April 23 and 24,” he said.

Another mayoral candidate pair, Bambang Raya Saputra and his running mate Kristanto, nominated by the Golkar party and 14 non-parliamentary parties, garnered 83,129 votes, or 17.02 percent of total votes.

Harini Krisniati and Ari Purbono, nominated by the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), obtained 45,561 votes or 9.33 percent.

M. Farchan and Dasih Ardiyantari, nominated by the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP), obtained 41,169 votes, or 8.43 percent.

Hasyim’s voters showed they were more interested in the personality rather than political party backing, Hasyim said.

Citing an example, he said Sukawi Sutarip, who served as Semarang mayor for two consecutive terms, was nominated by the PDI-P in 1999 but for his second term in office, Sukawi and his running mate Mahfudz Ali were nominated by the coalition of PKB, PAN and PPP.

That pair won 74.14 percent of votes, while PDI-P’s candidates lost.

“The political situation in Semarang is quite dynamic as evidenced by Sukawi’s political history,” he said.

“When the mayoral position was chosen by the legislature, he used the PDI-P as his vehicle, but when the post was determined by the people, he used the PKB, PPP and PAN.”

Sukawi later became head of the province’s Democratic Party and together with the PKS, he contested the gubernatorial election in 2008 but lost.

Soemarmo’s supporters gathered at his house Sunday to celebrate the victory.

“If I win, we are ready to invited all the other candidates to join the administration,” Soemarmo said.

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