“I accept my defeat wholeheartedly,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com.

The candidate was speaking following the release of various quick counts, all of which indicated his defeat, at the Democratic Party central executive board office in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday evening.  

Agus said that to him, the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election was a competition, in which there would always be someone who won and someone who lost. He added that he considered his defeat a reality of life.

Agus admitted that his low voter support indicated he could not yet meet the expectations of Jakarta residents on the ideal figure of a leader they wanted to lead the capital city. However, he said he believed there was a lesson for him to be learned from his failure.

“Allah, the almighty God, has not yet permitted me and Bu Sylvi to lead Jakarta. I believe God’s plan and decision will always be correct and better than ours,” Agus said, referring to his running mate, Sylviana Murni.

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A Kompas quick count showed that the Ahok-Djarot team secured 42.87 percent of the vote and Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno received 39.76 percent, leaving just 17.37 percent for the Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono-Sylviana Murni ticket.

The Jakarta election will proceed to a second round, because none of the candidate pairs won a majority (50 percent plus 1 vote), but as the candidates with least voter support, the Agus-Sylviana duo will not enter the second round.

Agus congratulated Ahok-Djarot and Anies-Sandiaga, who will compete in the second round. (ebf)