Losing West Java gubernatorial candidates Agum Gumelar and Nu'man Abdul Hakim on Wednesday shelved their plan to file a lawsuit against the West Java chapter of the General Elections Commission (KPUD) to the Supreme Court over election irregularities following the official announcement of Ahmad Heryawan and Dede Yusuf as winners.

However, Agum, nominated by seven political parties, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), cited several events, including smear campaigns and vote rigging at ballot stations, as causes of his defeat.

"I certainly feel disappointed, concerned and sad after receiving the bitter confirmation, given the irregularity, confusion and suspicion," Agum told reporters in a press conference at his residence in Bandung on Wednesday.

"During the cooling-off period, smear campaigns through leaflets and text messages, prevalent among tribal affiliations, religions, race and societal groups (SARA), said that if I won the election a process of Christianization would occur because we were supported by the Christian-based Prosperous Peace Party."

He also said KPUD's failure to up-date voters registration data had prevented many people from voting, adding that in Depok, more than 1 million voters had never registered.

He said KPUD had failed to inform the public and blamed it for the low voters turnout compared to the percentage of golput (those refusing to vote for any candidates) that reached 37 percent, or 27.9 million voters.

Agum said he had not expected the candidate pair nominated by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) alliance to win because they had regularly placed last on surveys conducted by five national survey institutions since the initial stage of campaigning.

"Based on our supervision, vote rigging occurred in at least nine polling stations in Cianjur."

Despite the accusations, Agum said he would eventually accept defeat and that he respected KPUD's Tuesday announcement.

"For the sake of more important things and people's unity we accept it. We urge the entire people of West Java to uphold the principle of democracy and to avoid actions that might stunt the growth of democracy in Indonesia and especially in West Java.

"To the PKS, we appeal for it to not engage in smear campaigns involving SARA that could undermine unity and harmony among members of religious communities."

Agum has stated his intention to nominate himself for the presidential election in 2009.

Golkar Party and Democrat Party chapters that nominated the Danny Setiawan and Iwan Sulandjana pair have taken a similar stance. Golkar Party's provincial executive board head Bambang Haryono said his party accepted the defeat modestly and deemed it a valuable lesson.

Popular

Indonesian Muslim groups rally behind Iran amid escalating war

Details on gasoline, diesel rationing remain elusive

Witnesses, activists in Andrie case subject to threats