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Bekasi election results declared amid foul-play allegations

Incumbent Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi won the most votes in the regency election in Bekasi on Sunday, a poll body said following a quick vote count

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Mon, December 17, 2012

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Bekasi election results declared amid foul-play allegations

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ncumbent Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi won the most votes in the regency election in Bekasi on Sunday, a poll body said following a quick vote count.

“Our quick count result has confirmed the dominance of Rahmar Effendi-Ahmad Syaikhu over the other pairs,” Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) researcher Hanggoro Doso Pamungkas said on Sunday as quoted by antaranews.com.

The LSI quick count revealed that Rahmat Effendi and his partner Ahmad Syaikhu — who were backed by a coalition of political parties comprising the Golkar Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the People Conscience Party (Hanura) — collected the highest amount of votes with 43.87 percent.

The quick count result also said that Dadang Mulyadi and Lukman Hakim — who were supported by the National Mandate Party (PAN), Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) and the United Development Party (PPP) — ranked second with 25.56 percent of the votes.

Sumiyati Mochtar Mohammad and Anim Immamuddin — who were backed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB) — came in third place with 19.81 percent of votes.

Independent candidates Shalih Manggara Sitompul and Anwar Shori were in the fourth place with 5.49 percent of votes, while Awing Asmawi and Andi Zahidi from the Democratic Party came in last place with 5.27 percent.

LSI also recorded that 51.19 percent of the total 1.6 million voters did not exercise their right to vote.

“The survey was conducted with a margin of error of less than 1 percent. The data was collected from 116,000 voters from 250 polling stations,” Hanggoro said.

In May, Rahmat was officially inaugurated as mayor and replaced Mochtar Mohammad, who had been ousted by the Supreme Court after being sentenced for six years’ imprisonment for his involvement in several corruption cases.

Mochtar, whose wife Sumiyati also ran in the election, had been accused of paying Rp 1.6 billion (US$166,027) in bribes to local councilors and of using Rp 639 million of state money for personal ends.

Mochtar had also been accused of giving Rp 500 million to the Adipura Award selection committee to have Bekasi win the prestigious Clean City award in 2010. He is also suspected of having bribed Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) officials to the tune of Rp 400 million in order that the Bekasi administration would receive a positive financial report.

Last week, the Corruption Eradication Commission released a list of cities with the worst public services — Bekasi tops the list.

The Bekasi election supervisory committee (Panwaslu) arrested two people in Pekayon Jaya polling station on Sunday for allegedly involved in election jockeying for Sumiyati.

The committee head, Yayah Nahdiyah, said that the two suspects, identified as AG and WA, had been instructed by a member of the Regional Election Organizing Committee (KPPS), identified only as NG.

“NG told AG and WA to vote for Sumiyati Mochtar Mohammad–Anim Imamudin by using other people’s ballot papers,” Yayah said as quoted by antaranews.com.

Yayah said that the case was under investigation by the Bekasi Kota Police.(nad)

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