TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Lampung poll candidates claim victory
Three Bandarlampung mayor candidates claimed victory on Friday, before the final vote count in the Lampung province capital had been completed
Change Size
T
hree Bandarlampung mayor candidates claimed victory on Friday, before the final vote count in the Lampung province capital had been completed.
The candidates claimed them-selves winners in the municipality election, based on quick count results exposed by three survey institutes. Of 13 districts in Bandarlampung, only two had completed vote counting results Friday.
Based on a quick count from Rakata Institute, two incumbents backed by a coalition of big parties, were losing in the elections.
The two were Bandarlampung Mayor Eddy Sutrisno and South Lampung Regent Wendy Melfa.
Quick counts, both conducted by an independent survey and manually by the regency General Elections Commission (KPUD), showed that both Eddy and Wendy garnered 5 percent less votes than their contenders.
In Bandarlampung, Eddy, who ran with Hantoni Hasan, was backed up by a Democratic Party coalition, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP).
Eddy was trailing behind Herman H.N.-Thobroni Harun, backed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). In South Lampung, Wendy - backed by the Golkar Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Reform Star Party (PBR) - was losing against PDI-P's ticket Rycko Menoza-Eki Setyanto.
Political observer Syarief Makhya of Lampung University said the incumbents were losing the race since residents were getting smarter.
"The incumbents can no longer rely on popularity. Several surveys showed that people were not affected by vote buying. Surveys showed that voters in Bandarlampung and South Lampung would take the money but would not necessarily vote for them," he said Friday.
In Bandarlampung, quick counts were conducted by Rakata, an independent institute; Lampung Survey Network (JSL), reportedly behind the Eddy-Hantoni ticket; and the Independent Survey Institute (LIS), which works for the Kherlani-Heru ticket.
A quick count by Rakata Institute showed that the Herman-Thobroni ticket was in the lead with 33.4 percent votes. Kherlani-Heru was in second with 29.7 percent and Eddy-Hantoni with 27.77 percent.
The JSL shows a different result with Eddy's ticket in the lead at 33.4 percent of votes, while LIS named Kherlani-Heru winner with 41.28 percent.
Results of the manual vote counting process at the district level were expected to be completed Saturday night at the latest. The long process has raised fear among campaign teams of vote rigging, as evident in the 2005 municipality election and the 2009 legislative election in Bandarlampung as well as several other regencies in the province.
The province hosted simultaneous elections in four regencies and two municipalities on June 30.
"Our quick count has a margin of error about 2 percent, so it's likely that the Bandarlampung election will only be one round," Rakata director Eko Kuswanto said.
