F

ive regions in South Sulawesi are scheduled to hold direct regional leadership elections (Pilkada) simultaneously on Wednesday.

They are Makassar city, and Jeneponto, Luwu, Wajo and Pinrang regencies.

In Makassar, 10 candidate pairs are contesting the mayoral election, six of them nominated by political parties and four of them independent.

The six pairs nominated by political parties are incumbent Makassar Mayor Supomo Guntur and Kadir Halid, Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto-Syamsu Rizal, Irman Yasin Limpo-Busrah Abdullah, Tamsil Linrung-Das'€™ad Latif, Adil Patu-Isradi Zainal, and Apiaty Kamaluddin-Zulkifli Ottoh.

The four independent candidate pairs are Herman Handoko-Latief Bafadhal, Rusdin Abdullah-Idris Patarai, Erwin Kallo-Hasbi Ali and Muhyina Soefian-Syaiful Saleh.

The 10 candidate pairs will compete for 982,500 of the total votes to become the mayor and vice mayor of Makassar for the 2014-2019 period. The Makassar mayoral election is supposed to be held in February 2014, but has been moved forward because the legislative and presidential elections will be held next year.

Adi Suryadi Culla, a political expert at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, predicted this year'€™s Makassar election would be held in two rounds as it would be difficult for a candidate pair to gain 30 percent of the total vote.

Of the candidate pairs, Adi went on, four pairs had more chance of winning. They are Supomo-Kadir, supported by the Golkar Party; Ramdhan-Syamsu, backed by the Democratic Party (PD); Irman-Busrah, endorsed by the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Mandate Party (PAN); and Tamsil-Das'€™ad, supported by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

In Luwu, three candidate pairs will compete for 337,300 ballots, while in Wajo, six candidate pairs will contest in the regency election. In Pinrang, there are six candidate pairs running for the election, while in Jeneponto, three candidate pairs will compete in the regency election.

On Tuesday, people rallied at the Jeneponto General Elections Commission (KPUD). They demanded the election process be postponed and the Baharudin B.J.-Isnaad Ibrahim pair, which was not approved by the KPUD because it only obtained 21,000 of the required 27,000 votes to be candidates,
be included.

Separately, in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi on Tuesday swore in Muhammad Zainul Majdi and Muhammad Amin as NTB governor and deputy governor for the 2013-2018 period.

Zainul and his running mate Amin were nominated by seven political parties, including the PD and Golkar in the 2013 NTB gubernatorial election on May 13. Zainul was an incumbent candidate and chairman of the NTB PD, while Amin is NTB legislative deputy speaker and NTB Golkar secretary.