T

he newly inducted West Java governor and vice governor were told on Thursday to improve spatial planning in the province with an area of 35,000 square kilometers.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said that as a province supporting Jakarta, if there was something wrong in West Java, the impact would be felt in Jakarta.

'€œTherefore, we expect prudence from the provincial administration, legislative council and the public in designating a spatial plan in West Java so as not to cause confusion or disaster in the future,'€ Gamawan said when inducting Ahmad Heryawan and Deddy Mizwar at the Merdeka Building.

Gamawan illustrated that if West Java lost just 10 hectares of open space, it would bring floods to Jakarta.

The former West Sumatra governor also said that West Java was the country'€™s main rice producer, which had to be harmonized with investment management. Gamawan pointed to increased investment in the province from Rp 47 trillion (US$4 billion) in 2011 to Rp 52 trillion in 2012.

However, he warned that new investment could wipe out agricultural land in West Java if it were replaced by industrial and residential areas, which could threaten the national food security.

As representatives of the central government, both the governor and vice governor have to be able to cooperate with regency and city administrations, which have the authority to manage their own regions, Gamawan said.

Ahmad and Deddy garnered some 6.15 million votes from 20.71 million voters casting their votes out of 32.5 million eligible voters.

Political observer from Padjadjaran University, Muradi said that Ahmad and Deddy faced five major challenges of religious intolerance, infrastructure, bureaucracy management, education and people'€™s welfare.

Meanwhile in Palembang, the South Sumatra General Elections Committee (KPUD) has endorsed Alex Noerdin and Ishak Mekki as the winners of the South Sumatra gubernatorial election.

Reflecting quick count results by independent pollsters, the KPUD'€˜s official tally revealed that Alex and Ishak received 1.40 million votes or 36.02 percent of the total votes. Herman Deru-Maphilinda garnered 1.25 million votes (32.25 percent), Eddy Santana and Annisa Juwita got 695,667 votes (17.83 percent) while Iskandar and Hafisz won only 400,321 votes (10.26 percent).

There were 141,596 void votes for a total of 3.90 million votes out of 5.82 million eligible voters.

A witness from the Herman-Maphilinda ticket, Suparman, said there were indications of votes being inflated and therefore the ticket refused to accept the final tally.

He pointed out that in Palembang, for example, there was a discrepancy of 10,000 votes between the actual votes and the final tally.

'€œWe will file a lawsuit at the Constitutional Court,'€ Suparman said.