T

wo mayoral candidates in Jayapura, Papua, claim to have the support of the Golkar Party in the Feb. 15 election but the party’s local executive board has denied this, saying it is only endorsing one candidate.

“There is no way that the Golkar Party supports both candidates. Our support goes to the Benhur Tommy Mano-Haji Rustam Saur pair,” said Marthinus Werimon, acting secretary of Golkar’s Papua chapter, in Jayapura on Friday.

Originally, Golkar had lent its support to the Abisai Rollo-Dipo Wibowo ticket as shown in a letter signed by Golkar chairman Setya Novanto on June 2. Later, the party conducted a survey and it found around 56 percent of respondents favored Benhur and only 6 percent would vote for Abisai.

“The gap was so wide we therefore shifted our support. We want to win the election in Jayapura and that’s why we support the candidate favored by voters,” Marthinus said.

And so Golkar endorsed the candidacy of Benhur-Haji Rustam by issuing a letter on Sept. 8. The letter was also signed by Golkar chairman Setya Novanto. The issuance of the Sept. 8 letter automatically annulled Golkar’s earlier support for Abiasi Rollo, he said.

In total, there are three pairs of candidates registered with the Jayapura City General Elections Commission (Jayapura KPUD) . Both Benhur and Abiasi registered their candidacies on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Boy Markus Dawir-Nur Alam pair were the last candidates to register with the Jayapura KPUD on Friday.

In addition, data from the KPUD shows that of 11 regencies and cities in Papua that will hold regional elections in February, a majority of the candidates are incumbent regents or mayors. Half of the incumbents are from the Democratic Party.

“There are six Democratic Party chairpersons running in the local elections. They are Befa Jigibalom in Lanny Jaya, Henock Ibo in Puncak Jaya, Tony Tesar in Yapen, Natalis Tabuni in Intan Jaya, Usman Wanimbo in Tolikara and Yarius Gwijangge in Nduga. We are confident they will win their elections,” said Carolus Bolly, a local Democrat leader.

He said the party dominated Papua in the last elections both at the provincial level and in the regencies. “We are optimistic about winning the elections,” he said.

Other incumbents contesting the February poll, apart from Benhur in Jayapura City, are Mathius Awoitouw in Jayapura regency, Mesak Manibor in Sarmi, Herman Auwe in Dogiyai and Stefanus Kaisma in Mappi.

Meanwhile in West Sulawesi, the local election commission confirmed three pairs of candidates had registered to contest the gubernatorial election.

Two pairs, Ali Baal Masdar-Enny Anggraeni Anwar and Salim Mengga-Hasanuddin Mas’ud, registered on Friday, following Suhardi Duka-Kalma Katta who registered earlier.

West Sulawesi KPUD chairman Usman Suhuriah said the Ali Baal-Enny pair had been nominated by the NasDem Party, Gerindra Party, United Development Party, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and National Mandate Party (PAN).

Salim-Hasanuddin has been endorsed by Golkar.

Of the pairs contesting the gubernatorial election, three are former regents. They are Suhardi (former Mamuju regent), Katta (former Majene regent) and Ali Baal (former Polewali Mandar regent).

All of them served two terms in their respective regencies.

Meanwhile, the gubernatorial elections in Gorontalo,in northern Sulawesi, will see four candidates contesting the poll.

In Cilacap, Central Java, the regency election will see three candidates running, all of them current or former PDI-P members.

One is incumbent regent Tato Pamuji who is endorsed by Golkar, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Democratic Party. The second candidate is Fran Lukman, a former local legislature speaker, who is nominated by Gerindra and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

The third is Taufik Hidayat who is nominated by the PDI-P and United Development Party.

In Mentawai Islands, the election will see two pairs go head to head in the race, while in Payakumbuh City three pairs will contest the poll.

— Syamsul Huda M. Suhari, Agus Maryono and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb contributed to this reporting.