TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
PDI-P blames technical glitches for Ahok-Djarot's failure to win in first round
Change Size
Voting day -- Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, his wife Veronica Tan and son Nicholas Sean Purnama show off their ballots during the election in South Jakarta on Wednesday. (JP/Nurul Fitri Ramadhani)
T
he Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has claimed that Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and his running mate Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat should have won the gubernatorial election in the first round.
However, technical glitches hampered their efforts to win a simple majority, a party official has claimed.
“Based on our mapping out on social media and in surveys, the popularity of Pak Ahok and Pak Djarot continues to increase. Today [Wednesday], we predict that their favorability rating stands at 51.8 percent,” PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said as quoted by kompas.com.
He was speaking at the private residence of PDI-P chariwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri in Kebagusan, South Jakarta, on Wednesday evening.
(Read also: Please allow Ahok-Djarot to continue building Jakarta: Megawati)
Hasto also said the high level of enthusiasm of Jakartans who wished to cast their vote had not been properly accommodated by the city administration and election officials.
Many voters could not exercise their right to vote on Election Day, he said.
“It was a tight competition. Definitely, all the candidates used their best strategies,” said Hasto.
“We also received reports of the massive distribution of basic commodities committed by a candidate pair. We are still investigating the matter.”
A Kompas quick count revealed that Ahok-Djarot secured 42.87 percent of the vote. Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno received 39.76 percent of the vote and Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono-Sylviana Murni received just 17.37 percent of the vote.
Hasto expressed his gratitude to Jakartans who voted for Ahok-Djarot. The pair’s victory is something the party should be proud of because it happened amid extraordinary pressures, he added. (ebf)
