I

ncumbent Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika and his running mate, I Ketut Sudikerta, are thought to be ahead in the vote count being conducted concurrently across the island, with 50.02 percent.

Tabulations from the plenary meeting of the regional General Elections Commission (KPUD) across Bali on Thursday revealed that Pastika-Sudikerta obtained 1,063,734 votes.

Meanwhile, incumbent Deputy Governor AAG Ngurah Puspayoga and his running mate, Dewa Nyoman Sukrawan, now speaker of the Buleleng Legislative Council, gained 1,062,738 votes, or 49.98 percent. Thus Pastika-Sudikerta have a slight lead of 996 votes.

Pastika-Sudikerta were leading in four of the province's nine regencies and one municipality: Badung, Buleleng, Karangasem and Klungkung, while losing in four regencies, Bangli, Gianyar, Jembrana and Tabanan and Denpasar municipality.

The vote count ran smoothly without any security problems as police personnel heavily guarded the KPUD's offices. However, the Puspayoga-Sukrawan team refused to sign the vote count results in four regencies, stating Pastika-Sudikerta engaged in vote buying. They demanded a recount at the polling station level.

However, KPUD Bali confirmed that their refusal to sign the final results in those regencies, including Buleleng, the home base of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), would not affect the
final decision.

'The general commission regulations state that any candidate team may refuse to sign the results document. However, the vote count process will continue as scheduled,' Dewa Wiarsa Raka Sandi, member of the commission, said. The vote count is scheduled to be completed by Sunday.

The election has been a head-to-head 'battle' placing Pastika and Sudikerta, who are supported by a coalition of nine political parties under the Bali Mandara Coalition, which includes the Golkar Party and the Democratic Party, against Puspayoga-Sukrawan, who are endorsed by the PDI-P.

Voting ran smoothly on May 15 as residents cast their ballots at more than 6,000 voting stations across the island. However, the contradictory quick count results from several survey institutions enticed both camps to claim victory, triggering tension between their respective supporters.

As tension grew among supporters, the Thursday vote count process was conducted amid tight security in each region.

To secure the vote count in Denpasar, for example, the Bali Police deployed more than 400 personnel, including the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) and community control teams. Military personnel were also deployed to back up police security operations. Water cannons and armored personnel carriers have been made ready at every KPUD office.

In an attempt to prevent clashes after the vote count is completed next Sunday, KPUD Bali will hold a joint prayer on Friday morning in Jagatnatha Temple, Denpasar.

Both pairs of candidates are expected to attend, along with several local leaders and prominent figures. The chairman of the Bali Mandara Coalition, which endorsed Pastika-Sudikerta, Gede Sumarjaya Linggih, said that the team was really grateful for the result. 'We hope candidate ticket number one can accept the
result,' Sumarjaya Linggih said.

However, Puspayoga-Sukrawan's team plan to reject the result. They demanded the KPUD conduct a re-count based on the C1 form made in each polling station, as they claimed a win with 50.04 percent of the vote.

A member of the PDI-P advocacy team, Arteria Dahlan, said the PDI-P found many practices of money politics and intimidation by Pastika's team. Unfortunately, he refused to provide details. 'We demand a re-count. We hope the KPUD can be just and fair in this election,' he said.