T

he special economic zones of Batam and Karimun in Riau Islands province held their regional elections on Wednesday to elect their respective mayor and regent.

Five candidate tickets ran for mayor in Batam municipality, and two ran for regent in Karimun.

Batam Election Commission (KPUD) chairman Hendryanto said the election ran relatively smoothly, but added that it had been marred by a low voter turnout.

“Regarding the people’s lack of enthusiasm for casting their votes, we have not issued a statement because it is still being drafted,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said the city had 667,082 registered voters, and that 1,788 polling station had been set up on Batam Island and surrounding islands.

However, at some stations voter turnout was strikingly low. Only 50 out of the 150 registered voters in Baloi Total subdistrict cast their votes, and the situation was worse at the Batamindo Community Center, where 100 out of 500 registered voters came to the polling station.

Incumbent Batam Mayor Ahmad Dahlan said he was optimistic he would win, as he had secured more than 30 percent of the total votes cast according to quick counts.

“I am confident that the people still want me to lead the municipality for another five years,” said Ahmad, who is also chairman of the Democratic Party’s Batam branch.

The tickets who ran for mayor were Ahmad Dahlan and his running mate Rudi, Ria Saptarika–Zainal Abidin, Nada F. Soraya–Nuryanto, Aripin Nasir–Irwansyah and Amir Hakim Siregar–Syamsul Bahrum.

The Batam Police deployed 5,000 officers to keep the peace during the election.

Separately, in Karimun, the KPUD’s voter registration working group chairman, Evi Herita, said she was optimistic that all of the regency’s 166,783 registered voters had cast their votes.

“We are sure the election ran smoothly as we all saw this morning. Nothing seems to have the potential to disturb the election,” Evi said Wednesday.