V

oters in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) have reportedly placed large bets on the second round of the gubernatorial election, held across the province's 21 regencies/municipalities on Thursday, gamblers staked money or even livestock on their favored candidate pairs.

The phenomenon was evident in a number of regions including North Timor Tengah regency, Manggarai Raya and western Flores. The bets varied, ranging from Rp 100,000 (US$11) to Rp 75 million.

Jon Bansae, a resident of South Timor Tengah regency, said that the majority of residents both in rural and urban areas took advantage of the election, contested by the two candidate pairs of Frans Lebu Raya ' Benny Litelnoni and Esthon Foenay ' Paul A Tallo, to gamble.

'Supporters of each candidate pair collect money or vehicles as bets against the other pair's supporters. They have placed the bets since Wednesday, making the election very busy, just like the first round,' Jon said.

Taking advantage of elections to gamble, he added, was a common thing in NTT, not only during gubernatorial races but also during regency or mayoral elections.

'I was informed that some residents bet Rp 10 million and even livestock,' another local, Paulus Ndoi of East Manggarai, said.

In the first round, incumbent Frans Lebu Raya and his running mate Benni Alexander Litelnoni won 681,273 or 29.8 percent of the vote while his rival deputy governor Esthon L. Foenay and running mate Paul Edmundus Tallo won 515,836 or 22.6 percent of the vote.

Separately in Central Java, the provincial Election Monitoring Committee (Panwaslu) and public order personnel (Satpol PP) on Thursday took down campaign material in public places across Semarang on Thursday as the cooling-off period began in the gubernatorial election.

Semarang municipal Panwaslu chairperson Sri Wahyu Ananingsih called on the camps of the contending candidates to help remove their respective campaign material.

In Semarang municipality alone, Panwaslu disassembled thousands of banners and flags from midnight to 4 p.m. on Thursday.

The cooling-off period will end on Saturday, the day before polling on Sunday.

According to Nuswantoro Dwiwarno of the Central Java Election Commission (KPUD), candidates' campaign material could still be displayed at the posts of the contending candidates or their respective nominating political parties.

'They are not allowed to be displayed in public places,' he said.

Three candidate pairs will run in the election on Sunday, competing for some 28 million votes.

Hadi Prabowo and Don Murdono were jointly nominated by the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), United Development Party (PPP), National Awakening Party (PKB), Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).

Incumbent Bibit and Sudijono Sastroatmodjo were nominated by the Democratic Party, National Awakening Party (PAN) and the Golkar Party, while Ganjar Pranomo and Heru Sudjatmoko are running solely on an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) ticket.

Central Java Panwaslu chairman Abhan Misbah assured voters that no changes had been made to the fixed electoral roll as officially declared by the KPUD.

'People do not need to worry about the electoral roll because any voters whose names are not on the list can still exercise their rights by showing their ID and family cards [at the polling booths on election day],' Abhan said, quoting a ruling made by the constitutional court.