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Prabowo ready to accept any result from KPU, official says
Gerindra Party chairman Suhardi said his partyâs chief patron and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto would accept the final presidential election result from the General Elections Commission (KPU), as many have written open letters online begging him to submit to the will of the people
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erindra Party chairman Suhardi said his party's chief patron and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto would accept the final presidential election result from the General Elections Commission (KPU), as many have written open letters online begging him to submit to the will of the people.
Suhardi acknowledged that a number of ordinary individuals, as well as public figures including poet Goenawan Mohamad, cinematographer Riri Riza and actress Happy Salma, have published letters entitled 'Surat Untuk Pak Bowo' (Letter for Mr. Bowo) on Tumblr, a blogging website.
'I do not know whether Pak Prabowo has read the letters, but he has said over and over that he will accept the people's decision. It is better for us to wait for the official announcement from the KPU,' Suhardi said as quoted by tempo.co on Monday.
As of Sunday evening, as many as 40 open letters had been published on the website. The authors of the letters cited their anxiety over dubious polling results between different groups of pollsters.
The authors also said they were worried that statements from the two candidates, Prabowo and Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, who both claimed that they won the election, could prompt violations from both sides to rig the final result.
As for the conclusion, they asked Prabowo to accept the verdict gracefully if the KPU's tally showed that rival candidate pair Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla was indeed the winner of the election.
Previously, seven pollsters including Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC), the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), Indikator Politik, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)-Cyrus Institute, Kompas and the Radio Republic of Indonesia (RRI), placed Jokowi-Kalla in the lead with an average of 52 percent of the vote, whereas rivals Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa garnered an average of 47 percent.
However, the Strategic Development and Policy Research Center (Puskaptis), the National Survey Institute (LSN), the Indonesian Research Center (IRC) and the Indonesian Votes Network (JSI) declared that Prabowo-Hatta won by between 1 and 4 percent. The pollsters' results have led to public confusion as their track records have shown they are less credible than those that announced Jokowi's lead. (gda)
