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fter months of heated campaigning that polarized the nation, the General Elections Commission (KPU) finally announced the official vote-tally result and declared the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)-led ticket of Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo-Jusuf Kalla the winner of the 2014 presidential
election on Tuesday.

According to the official results, as many as 134.9 million people exercised their franchise during polling day on July 9, or 70.9 percent of the approximately 190 million eligible voters.

Jokowi secured almost 71 million votes or 53.15 percent of valid votes, while the Gerindra Party-led ticket of Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa received 62.5 million votes, or 46.85 percent.

The final result showed a higher winning margin than earlier quick-count results by pollsters that estimated Jokowi'€™s winning margin at, on average, about 4 percent.

Jokowi, who was a former mayor of Surakarta, a small town in Central Java, was triumphant in 23 out of 33 provinces, while Prabowo secured the most votes in 10 provinces.

Among the biggest contributors to Jokowi'€™s victory were Central Java and Bali, both known to be PDI-P strongholds.

In Central Java, Jokowi secured almost 13 million votes, or 66.65 percent, leaving Prabowo with a gap of more than 6 million votes as he only obtained 33.35 percent of the vote, while Jokowi won in Bali with 1.5 million votes, or 71.42 percent, and Prabowo trailed with 614,241 votes or 28.58 percent.

Besides these two provinces, Jokowi also won big in East Java with more than 11 million votes, and South Sulawesi with more than 3 million votes, with Prabowo only managing to secure 1.2 million votes.

However, Prabowo won by a landslide in West Java, which has the largest number of eligible voters in the whole country, as he nabbed 14.1 million votes, leaving Jokowi far behind with 9.5 million votes.

The vote count was marred by Prabowo'€™s decision to withdraw his candidacy and refusal to accept the KPU'€™s decision, prompting his election witnesses to walk out of the proceedings.

Besides that, the vote tally in the five provinces was riven with complaints from both camps, which resulted in the vote count for Jakarta being drawn out to more than two hours.

Prabowo'€™s camp claimed there were alleged violations conducted by local poll administrators (KPPS) in 5,814 polling stations across the capital, where it was alleged that there were many illegal voters. The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) only conducted reelections in 13 polling stations, based on the recommendation of the Jakarta Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).

'€œIt would be dangerous if the results of this presidential election contained flaws. It might look like a small problem but the impact is actually huge,'€ Didi Supriyanto, an election witness from Prabowo'€™s
camp, said.

The committee'€™s chairwoman, Mimah Susanti, said that the Bawaslu only recommended the KPUD conduct reelections in 13 polling stations as the committee only had time to verify the allegations in 36 polling stations, and uncovered violations in only 13.

KPU commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay, meanwhile, said that he believed the allegations were baseless.

According to him, many voters who voted using their identity cards (KTP) but who were not registered in the final voter list (DPT) were not trying to vote twice or rig the election.

'€œBased on our notes, these people were not people who were mobilized or who voted twice, but people who genuinely wanted to exercise their right to vote,'€ Hadar said.