The Jakarta Post, May 17, 2006
Ambon's mayor looking safe in election
M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon
University lecturer and Ambon Mayor MJ Papilaja has proven his popularity in the city
after gaining the most votes in Tuesday's provisional vote count in the city's first-ever
direct election Monday.
For the election, the incumbent, an accounting lecturer at Pattimura University in
Ambon, was running with businesswoman Olivia Latuconsina.
Both were endorsed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), after
Olivia, who is a Golkar Party cadre, failed to get her party's endorsement to run for
mayor.
Based on the provisional tally at the Ambon General Elections Commission (KPUD),
the pair garnered the most votes in the city's three districts.
As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, Papilaja was set to keep his current position after gaining
some 43,000 votes from over 126,000 votes already counted. Over 180,000 eligible
voters were estimated to have cast their votes Monday.
Richard Louhenapessy-Syarif Hadler had the second highest percentage of the vote
with 36,018 votes; followed by Hendrik Hattu-Iskandar Walla with 19,252 votes; Made
Rahman Marasabessy-Aloysius Leisubun with 17,655 votes and John Malaiholo-Irma
Betaubun with 10,302 votes.
The commission's provisional tally was similar to the quick count results conducted
by Indonesia Survey Circle (LSI) and the Public Issue Network (JIP), which gave
Papilaja, a Protestant, and his Muslim running mate 36.02 percent of the vote.
The pair was followed by Louhenapessy-Hadler with 27.53 percent; Hattu-Walla with
15.34 percent; Marasabessy-Lesubun with 13.54 percent; and Malaiholo-Betaubun
with 7.57 percent.
LSI's public strategy director, Widdy Aswindi, said the quick count was based on
random samples taken from 170 of the city's 448 polling stations, with a margin of
error estimated at 1 percent.
A member of the election commission, Zainal Rengifurwarin, told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday the vote counting was expected to be finished on May 23.
When asked about the quick count results, he said the commission would not use its
results to determine the direct election's winner.
"It's up to those independent institutions to do the quick count, but the KPUD will
determine the winner based on the real counting method at each polling station. We
can't determine the election winner based on the quick count but it is useful as
information for the public," he said.
Chief of the Ambon Election Supervisory Committee, Yantje Tjiptabudi, told the Post
the committee had recorded at least three election violations Monday. The cases
would be handled by the police.
One of them, he said, allegedly involved the chief of the local election committee in
Batumerah area, Musa Tuhulele, who picked up the voting box when the election was
about to begin without consulting other officials. His move delayed elections in two
polling stations which started at 1 p.m.
The committee also observed a man who voted in two polling stations and another
who cast his vote without presenting a voting card.
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