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Hanura, NasDem help Teman Ahok collect copies of voter IDs
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People fill in forms and provide their identity cards at a Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) booth at Kuningan City Mall, South Jakarta, to show their support for incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama. Teman Ahok has opened booths at 15 malls to garner support for Ahok's independent candidacy ahead of the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election. (thejakartapost.com/Callistasia Anggun Wijaya)
M
embers of the Hanura and NasDem parties, which have expressed their support for incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama to seek reelection as an independent candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election, have begun to help the Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) group to collect photocopies of identity cards of Jakarta voters.
Ahok has declared himself an independent gubernatorial candidate, paring with his subordinate Heru Budi Hartono, head of the Jakarta Financial Asset Management Board, ahead of the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election.
For the purpose, NasDem has established Muda Mudi Ahok, while Hanura has assigned its youth wings – Student Unit and Satria Hanura – to help collect ID card copies as part of the requirements for candidates who wish to run independently.
"They want to help us gather the copies of ID cards. We really appreciate it," said Teman Ahok spokesman Singgih Widyastono.
Hundreds of members of Muda Mudi Ahok have established posts across the city to garner support from Jakarta voters by providing copies of their ID cards.
Based on existing regulations, a Jakarta gubernatorial candidate is required to seek initial support from 6.5 percent of the city's eligible voters – about 532,000 people – by collecting copies of their IDs.
Initially, Teman Ahok claimed that its volunteers had collected more than 700,000 copies of IDs, but they were gathered before Ahok appointed his deputy candidate.
Therefore, they need to verify whether the voters would still support Ahok with his appointed deputy candidate. Teman Ahok said it had managed to collect 322,000 IDs since its volunteers restarted collecting ID copies after the appointment of Budi.
Chairwoman of Hanura's Jakarta chapter, Miryam Haryani, promised that her group would deploy all of its resources up to neighborhood units (RT) and community units (RW) to help Ahok run as an independent candidate.
She said her party would not only focus on collecting copies of IDs for Ahok, but would also appoint members to promote Ahok in their respective neighborhoods.
As an example, she said, if there were five polling station in a community unit, Hanura would assign five members to seek support for Ahok. "We will work especially to encourage residents to vote for Ahok," Miryam told thejakartapost.com on Monday.
Hanura will also make sure that Ahok's supporters are registered to vote, said Miryam.
A number of Hanura executives, including the deputy chairman of Hanura's Jakarta chapter, Rahmat HS, have expressed their disagreement with the party’s move to support Ahok, saying the decision was not in line with the aspirations of the party’s followers. (bbn)
