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n a tough race with other party rivals, Bima Arya, a young politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN), with his running mate Usmar Hariman, won the Bogor mayor election.

The Bogor general election commission (KPUD) announced after vote counting in its plenary session on Thursday that the Arya-Hariman pair, which was nominated by PAN, Democratic Party (PD), National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra), garnered 33.14 percent, or 132.835 votes while Ahmat Ru'yat and his running mate Aim Halim Hermana, who were nominated by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and United Development Party (PPP) gained 32.70 percent or 132.835 votes for second place. The Dody Rosadi'Untung W. Maryono pair grabbed 67,715 votes or 16,89 percent, the Syaiful Anwar'Muztahidin pair won 10.84 percent or 43,448 votes and the Firman Sidik Halim'Gartono pair gained only 6.43 percent or 25,793 votes.

Of more than 674,000 eligible voters for the election held on Sept. 14, 2013, only 420,000 casted their votes.

'141,069 men and 109,688 women did not participate in the election. The voter turnout reached 62.8 percent,' KPUD chairman Agus Teguh Suyarman said during the plenary meeting.

Deputy Chairman of PAN Bara Hasibuan said Bima Arya's pro-people programs and being close to the people were behind his victory.

'During the political campaign, he [Bima] unveiled his concrete programs to improve education and the social welfare of low-income people, including street vendors and workers in the labor-intensive sector,' he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

According to him, Bima's victory has nothing to do with supporting political parties but is really a political signal from Bogor residents that they wanted change and Bima was that agent of change.

If Bogor wanted to maintain the status-quo they would cast their votes to others in the election, he said.

'Almost all Bogor residents know Bima as a young politician living close to the people and they elected him because he is expected to make changes. He has been widely known as a young intellectual and politician,' he said referring to several other young politicians such as Jakarta governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and Golkar Politician Indra J. Piliang.

Bara added that Bogor's strategic position as a satellite city of Jakarta and as a home to several universities, including Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) and the famous Bogor Botanical Garden were waiting for a young and innovative leader to achieve changes to the city in the coming years.

Bima who got his PhD from the Australian National University, is a lecturer at the Paramadina University in Jakarta and also teaches at an early childhood education center (PAUD), an elementary and high schools in south Bogor.

The Ahmad Ru'yat'Aim Halim Hermana pair refused to accept the final result of the vote counting, saying they would file a lawsuit against alleged money politics, black campaign and irregularities during the organizing of the local election.

'We will file a lawsuit on the black campaigns and money politics on this year's mayoral election to the Constitutional Court,' Ahmad Ru'yat'Aim Halim Hermana's vote counting witness, Dadang Ruhiyana, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Rosadi'Maryono pair accepted their loss and the Arya'Hariman pair's victory in the election.

'We accept the Arya'Hariman pair's victory and congratulate them,' Dody, witness of the Rosadi-Maryono pair's camp in the vote counting, said after the plenary meeting.