Pramono Sweeps Jakarta Race as KPU Braces for Legal Challenge
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Loading... - Donghai Huang
- 10 Dec 2024
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The Jakarta branch of the General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) has declared Pramono Anung the winner of the city’s gubernatorial election held on November 27. Pramono, representing the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), secured over half of the votes, defeating key rival Ridwan Kamil of the pro-government Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) and independent candidate Dharma Pongrekun.
The KPU's final tally, presented during a public vote tabulation and certification meeting, revealed that Pramono garnered 2.18 million votes (50.07%), while Ridwan Kamil received 1.71 million votes (39.4%), and Dharma Pongrekun earned 459,230 votes (10.53%). Pramono's victory was bolstered by securing more votes than his rivals across all five Jakarta mayoralties and the Thousand Islands regency, surpassing the 50% threshold by over 2,900 votes.
Lies Hartono, the campaign manager for Pramono and Rano Karno, celebrated the results as a “victory for the people of Jakarta.” He commended the KPU Jakarta and election workers for their diligence throughout the vote counting process.
However, the Ridwan-Suswono camp expressed disappointment over the historically low voter turnout, which stood at 57.5% with 4.72 million of the 8.21 million registered voters casting their ballots. Ramdan Alamsyah, a representative from Ridwan's camp, attributed the low turnout to the KPU's failure to adequately distribute voter invitations and raised concerns about potential ballot tampering at polling stations.
In response to the election results, Ramdan announced plans to file an election dispute with the Constitutional Court, citing indications of ballot tampering and other irregularities. He emphasized the need for justice, stating, “In light of everything that happened [...] we will use our right to file [an election dispute].”
Similarly, Anthony James Harahap, spokesman for the Dharma-Kun pair, echoed concerns about ballot tampering and the legitimacy of the election results, describing them as unrepresentative of the public.
KPU Jakarta commissioner Dody Wijaya defended the election process, asserting that 90% of election invitations had been successfully delivered and reaffirming the validity of the final tally. He noted that the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) did not recommend a revote at the questioned polling stations.
While the KPU Jakarta has declared Pramono and Rano as the winners, the final confirmation of their victory is contingent upon the resolution of any disputes by the Constitutional Court. The losing candidates have until December 11 to file their challenges. The KPU must await the court's decision before formally declaring the pair as Jakarta’s new leaders or announcing a potential runoff election.
As the situation unfolds, the Ridwan-Suswono camp has begun assembling a legal team to pursue their challenge, indicating that the electoral process in Jakarta may face further scrutiny in the coming days.
