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Teman Ahok may not participate in second round campaign
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Cast your vote: Jakarta gubernatorial candidate Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama (left) and Veronica Tan (right) show their inked little fingers after they cast their votes at Polling Station 54 in Pantai Mutiara, Pluit, North Jakarta, on Feb.15. (Antara/Hafidz Mubarak A)
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olunteer group Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) has said it may take a break from campaign activities in support of incumbent candidate Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who has advanced into the second round of the Jakarta gubernatorial election.
Teman Ahok supporters said on Thursday they had not yet decided whether they would continue to help Ahok and his running mate, Djarot Saiful Hidayat, in the second round.
“We have been helping Ahok for two years non-stop. We’re starting to feel a bit tired,” Teman Ahok founder Singgih Widyastomo said as quoted by Kompas.com on Thursday.
“We want to have a rest first. We and other volunteers here may need a vacation,” he added.
(Read also: Please allow Ahok-Djarot to continue building Jakarta: Megawati)
A Kompas quick count shows that the Ahok-Djarot ticket secured 42.87 percent of the vote and Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno received 39.76 percent, leaving just 17.37 percent for the Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono-Sylviana Murni ticket.
“If we still help, maybe we will just become ‘supporters’, because it is the political parties endorsing the candidate pair that should be in the front line,” said Singgih.
Nonetheless, Teman Ahok still hoped the incumbent candidate would win the election. The group also said it would always support Ahok although the activities it would carry out would not be as intensive as they used to be, when Ahok had not yet received support from a political-party coalition.
Teman Ahok has been active since 2015 when Ahok first announced plans to run for a second term. The group declared itself as a volunteer group that supported Ahok running on an independent ticket. (ebf)
