Annas Maamun: (Photo: Tribun Pekanbaru/Theo Rizky)

The Riau General Elections Commission (KPUD) has declared Annas Maamun and his running mate Arsyadjuliandi 'Andi' Rachman as new Riau Governor and Deputy Governor for the 2013-2018 period.

The victorious pair won the runoff election, which was held on Nov. 27, handily beating their rivals Herman Abdullah and his running mate Agus Widayat.

Annas-Andi, endorsed by a coalition of the Golkar Party, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), got 1,322,327 votes or 60.75 percent of the total ballot. Herman-Agus, supported by 10 political parties, none of which are represented on the Provincial Legislative Council, including the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party and the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party, only managed to garner 854,240 votes or 39.25 percent.

'We will wait for three days to see whether a candidate pair will file a lawsuit over the result. If both pairs accept the result, we will immediately report the election result to the President,' Riau KPUD head Tengku Edy Sabli told The Jakarta Post after the plenary meeting on Friday.

According to the manual vote count held by the KPUD, the winning pair managed to get more than half the votes in 10 out of 12 regencies or cities. They only lost in Pekanbaru city and Kampar regency.

The result also showed that compared to the first round, the turnout in the runoff election declined from 61.3 percent to 55.5 percent.

Of the total 4,000,459 eligible voters in the second round, Edy said, the proportion of abstainers amounted to around 44.5 percent.

'This number is actually normal. Usually, runoff elections tend to see lower voter turnouts than in the first round,' he said.

'Some people might be reluctant to cast their votes because their candidates lost in the first round. We have already done our best to encourage people to cast their votes, but it all depends on the voters. We cannot force them to cast their votes,' said Edy.

Representative of the Annas-Andi ticket, Eva Nora, said her team fully accepted the result, while Taufik Arrahman, representing Herman-Agus, rejected the result.

'There have been many irregularities and we have collected data on fraud. So, based on our data we have, therefore, rejected the runoff election result,' Taufik said.

Among the examples of election fraud, Taufik said, were cases of ballot stuffing and intimidation of voters. 'Such incidents of fraud occurred in every regency and city. That's why the margin in the result was so wide,' he alleged.

Taufik, however, could not confirm whether or not Herman-Agus would file a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court. 'Our team is still discussing the issue and gathering more data, including videos on how several regional heads urged their residents to vote for the other candidate pair,' he said.

Edy encouraged the Herman-Agus team to file a legal challenge to the result if they did not accept it. 'Go ahead. They have the right to do so. I am just saying if there is no lawsuit, the swearing-in ceremony will be held much sooner and it also means that Riau will soon have a new governor,' Edy said.

Riau is the largest producer of crude oil in Indonesia and a production center for US energy giant Chevron in Indonesia.

Apart from its rich natural resources, Riau has also been known as a source of haze around the region following forest fires across the province that recently sparked political tension between Indonesia and neighboring countries Malaysia and Singapore.

Annas Maamun

'¢ Place/Date of birth: Bagan Siapi-api, Riau, April 17, 1940

'¢ Education: The state-run teacher training school (PGSLP Negeri) Padang (1962)

'¢ Previous positions: Chairman of Golkar's Riau provincial executive board, two-term Rokan Hilir regent (2006-2011, 2011-present), Rokan Hilir Legislative Council speaker (2001-2005), Bengkalis Legislative Council speaker (1999-2001)

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