Incumbent South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin and his running mate, Ishak Mekki, were leading the gubernatorial race on Thursday albeit with a narrow margin, according to two quick counts.

According to pollster Indo Barometer, the No. 4 ticket, Alex and Ishak, garnered 36.05 percent of the vote followed by the No. 3 pair, Herman Deru and Maphilinda, who received 32.92 percent.

No. 1 pair Eddy Santana-Annisa Juwita was third with 19.68 percent of eligible votes while the No. 2 ticket, Iskandar Hasan and Hafisz Tohir, were placed fourth having received only 11.33 percent of the vote.

On Thursday, 5,825,765 residents in South Sumatra cast their votes at 16,638 polling stations in 15 cities and regencies across the province.

Meanwhile, quick counts conducted by the Strategic Development and Policy Research Center (Puskaptis) revealed similar standings.

The incumbent received 35.03 percent followed by the other tickets, in the same order as above, on 33.24 percent, 17.44 percent and 14.31 percent, respectively.

Puskaptis director Husen Yazid said the pollster used a multistage random sampling with respondents from 440 polling stations across the province.

Puskaptis recorded that Alex-Ishak led the vote tally in nine cities and regencies, including Palembang, Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU), Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI), Ogan Ilir, Musi Banyuasin, Lahat, Empat Lawang and Banyuasin.

Herman and Maphilinda received the most votes in Prabumulih, Pagar Alam, South OKU, East OKU and Muara Enim.

Iskandar and Hafiz gained the most support in Lubuk Linggau, while Eddy and Anissa did not achieve a leading position in any regency or city.

Husen estimated that some 66 percent of eligible voters exercised their right to vote in the election.

Alex said he was thankful that South Sumatrans had given him the mandate to lead the province for a second term.

'€œI hope the quick count results will not differ too much from the manual counting,'€ he said at his residence after being informed of the quick count results.

'€œI am hopeful that I can win in one round because more public money will have to be spent if a second-round election is held.'€

Meanwhile, Herman said he was still upbeat that he would win the gubernatorial election because he had more votes than Alex based on his own quick count.

'€œI am also still waiting for the manual count by the KPUD [Provincial General Elections Commission]'€, he said.

Meanwhile, South Sumatra KPUD commissioner Chandra Puspa Mirza said that if the quick count results were verified, then Alex would be declared the winner of the gubernatorial race in one round.

'€œAlthough there are two tickets with more than 30 percent of the vote, based on our regulations the ticket with the highest number of votes will win the election,'€ he told The Jakarta Post, referring to KPU regulation No. 16/2010.

'€œIf, however, no ticket manages to get 30 percent of the vote, then we will have a second round.'€

In addition to the gubernatorial election, residents in Banyuasin, Empat Lawang, Lahat and OKI
regencies also elected their respective regents.

On Wednesday, the South Sumatra KPUD destroyed 6,381 excess and damaged ballots.

In a separate development prior to the gubernatorial election, an electronics shop was gutted by fire in the Pasar 16 Ilir area of Palembang at about 12 p.m. on Tuesday. There were no fatalities although the losses are expected to total billions of rupiah.

South Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said an investigation to determine
whether the fire was related to the Palembang municipal election was still ongoing.

The shop is owned by Hermanto Wijaya, who is publicly known to have supported candidate Romi Herton, who has been declared the winner by the Constitutional Court with a margin of only eight votes ahead of another candidate, Sarimuda.

'€œI think they were venting their anger toward me because I have supported Romi all this time,'€ Hermanto said.

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