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Jakarta Post

Jakartans brace for election results

Companies and schools in Jakarta are bracing for the official announcement of the general election results slated for Wednesday as some opt to close operations while it will be business as usual for others

A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, May 21, 2019

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Jakartans brace for election results

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span>Companies and schools in Jakarta are bracing for the official announcement of the general election results slated for Wednesday as some opt to close operations while it will be business as usual for others.

Supporters of Prabowo Subianto, who is expected to lose the election, are planning to hit the streets in a rally on Wednesday to challenge the election results at the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) office.

Abdul Kader, 25, a sales representative for a start-up, said his employers had urged workers to work from home on Wednesday while its two offices in Rasuna Said in South Jakarta and Tanjung Duren in West Jakarta would be closed.

“I still have to meet clients on May 22 but my coworkers will work from home,” Kader told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

“I’m personally not worried about the protest, but I’m more worried of the potential for a terrorist attack,” he added.

The authorities will also beef up security for the announcement as at least 32,000 personnel from the National Police and Indonesian Military (TNI) will be deployed in Jakarta. The police raised the security alert after they claimed to have uncovered a terrorist plot that would have used the protests to launch attacks.

The police’s antiterror squad, Densus 88, has rounded up at least 68 terrorism suspects since the beginning of this year. Twenty-nine of them were arrested this month alone on suspicion of plotting attacks under the cover of the May 22 rally.

The United States Embassy in Jakarta issued a security alert on Friday, warning its citizens of a “heightened risk of terrorism in connection with the finalization of election results”.

Yudha Farisky Ramanda, 23, who works for a private company in the MidPlaza office tower on Jl. Jendral Sudirman, Central Jakarta, said although the company would still be open on Wednesday, it had advised employees to work from home.

“I will work from home. Even if I go out, I will avoid Central Jakarta,” Yudha said, adding that he felt anxious over the scale of the protest.

Puspita Nurfadhillah, 23, a marketer for an e-commerce company in Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) in South Jakarta, said it would be business as usual for her office on Wednesday.

However, she said the company had warned employees to be extra careful and take routes that avoid the areas where the rally would pass by, such as the KPU office and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) office, both in Central Jakarta.

“We were advised not to hold meetings outside the office. We were also given a step-by-step guide on how to act if we face an emergency in or outside the office,” Puspita said.

She added that the company would shorten working hours so employees could leave early, before the afternoon rush hour starts.

Meanwhile, Tiwi, 26, a tax officer for a private company headquartered in Harmoni, Central Jakarta, said she would go to the office as usual because her employer had yet to give special instructions.

“However, my family is a bit worried and told me to skip work on May 22. My colleagues were also asked to skip work by their families. But the office has yet to make an announcement, so I don’t know whether to work as usual,” she said.

Some schools will also remain open on Wednesday while others are taking extra precautions by closing.

SD 01 Menteng state elementary school in Central Jakarta, located near the KPU office, will operate as usual, headmaster Slamet said.

“We advise teachers and students, especially those who live far away to anticipate [disruptions],” Slamet told the Post, adding that the decision was made as there was no instruction to close from the Jakarta Education Agency.

Santa Maria Fatima School in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, will close on Wednesday, the school’s foundation representative Afrida said, citing that the decision was made to anticipate any unwanted incidents.

Sarinah department store, located just across the road from the Bawaslu building, will also operate as usual, trading and property director of the mall’s management company PT Sarinah Indyruwani Asikin Natanegara said.

“None of Sarinah’s partners or tenants will close. We will remain alert and increase security [on Wednesday]. We hope that everything goes well,” Indyruwani said.

Tutum Rahanta, deputy chairman of the Association of Indonesian Retailers also said retail stores under the association would operate as usual on Wednesday. He believed that the authorities had worked on preventive and protection measures to secure the rally during the election result announcement, he said as reported by kontan.co.id.

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