T

he official vote count that began at the polling station level on Wednesday was marred by an alleged violation in North Sumatra.

The North Sumatra Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) on Thursday announced it had found a member of the Subdistrict Polling Committee (PPS) tampering with ballots during the presidential election in Medan, North Sumatra.

North Sumatra Bawaslu head Syafrida R. Rasahan said the PPS member allegedly opened a ballot box on Wednesday evening after the election was finished. She said she had summoned the perpetrator for questioning.

'€œHowever, the PPS member failed to show up. According to our initial investigation, the PPS member opened the ballot box to seize an important document inside,'€ Syafrida said at her office on Thursday.

Syafrida said her office was currently coordinating with the Medan General Elections Commission (KPUD) to investigate the violation.

The vote count was completed at each polling station around 1 p.m. on Wednesday. From July 10 to 12, the PPS will be responsible for reviewing the vote count at the subdistrict levels before the District Polling Committee (PPK) reviews the count again from July 13 to 15. The next recap at the regency and city level will take place on July 16 and 17 before the Provincial General Elections Commissions (KPUD) review the votes on July 18 and 19.

Finally, the General Elections Commission (KPU) is scheduled to oversee a final recapitulation of votes from July 20 to 22.

Both Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and rival Prabowo Subianto claimed victory on Wednesday.

A number of trusted quick count results on Wednesday confirmed Jokowi would become the seventh president of Indonesia, but Prabowo brushed aside those findings in favor of data drawn from three survey agencies believed to be financed by his campaign that declared him the winner.

Meanwhile, Jokowi and his running mate Jusuf Kalla led the tally in four polling stations in the Chinese-Indonesian community in the Kranggan subdistrict of Semarang, Central Java.

At polling station No. 7, for example, Jokowi secured 235 votes, while Prabowo and his running mate Hatta Rajasa received just seven. At polling station No. 8, Jokowi received 246 votes, while Prabowo secured seven votes.

The vote count among military families in Kesatrian Arhanud in Kodam IV Diponegoro in the Jatingaleh subdistrict revealed an interesting finding. In a housing complex of retired army members, Jokowi won the most number of votes, while Prabowo emerged as the winner in a housing complex populated by active army members.

In East Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, campaign team personnel for Jokowi and Kalla revealed that according to the C1 document containing the voting records at the polling stations, the pair had received 68,491 votes, or 73.5 percent of all votes cast.

Meanwhile, Prabowo and Hatta received 24,763 votes or 26.5 percent of the total 93,254 votes cast.

'€œI believe Indonesians want to see a change in the next five years. I think the five debates between both candidates also influenced this victory,'€ Jokowi'€™s campaign coordinator, Wilibrodus Nurdin Bolong, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Manggarai Timur KPUD spokesman Ardianus Harmin said that he observed no violations during the election day.

Antara news agency reported that the KPU attempted to send election materials to a number of districts in Yahukimo regency in Papua on Thursday, but that distribution was hampered by a string of bad weather days.