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It's official: Fauzi, Jokowi face showdown in September runoff

Source
Jakarta Post - July 20, 2012

Andreas D. Arditya, Jakarta – Election officials have confirmed that Surakarta Mayor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and incumbent Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo were top finishers in the Jakarta gubernatorial election on July 11 and will face each other in a runoff election on Sept. 20.

In announcing the final vote tabulations on Thursday, the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) said none of the six candidates running for governor had achieved the 50 percent of the vote required to win the election on the first ballot.

"According to existing law, a runoff will be held if none of the candidates won more than 50 percent of the vote," Sumarno, the KPU Jakarta's election and vote tabulation chief, told reporters.

Representatives from all six campaigns on hand for the announcement said they accepted the commission's final vote count. Sumarno said that the commission would meet on Friday to further discuss the runoff.

According to the KPU Jakarta's final count, Jokowi received 1,847,157 votes in the election, followed by Fauzi with 1,476,648. Only 4.4 million of the more than 6.9 million people on the commission's list of registered voters came out to the 15,059 polling stations across the city's five municipalities and Thousand Islands regency on July 11. However, more than 2.5 million people listed on the voter roll chose to stay home.

Sumarno said that the commission would develop a new list of registered voters for the runoff based on the one used in the first round. "We encourage eligible voters to register themselves if they have not been listed on the roll."

All Jakarta residents who are married or will be at least 17 by the runoff election are eligible to vote.

Jokowi, whose strong finish on July 11 has made him the front runner in the run up to the runoff. His campaign filed a report with the Jakarta Police on Thursday, alleging negative campaigning against Jokowi.

"We are filing a criminal report against the perpetrator of the black campaign that has tainted Jokowi and his running mate, Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama," Habiburokhman, a campaign representative said.

Campaign workers had found pamphlets and read postings and messages on Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger that denigrated Ahok's Chinese heritage. "The libelous messages were targeted against Jokowi and Ahok. Espousing hatred based on race and ethnicity is against the law," he said.

Habiburokhman was referring to the four so-called SARA topics – suku (ethnicity), agama (religion), ras (race) and antargolongan (intergroup relations) – which were taboo during the New Order.

Fauzi's campaign spokesman said it was not involved. "Anything related to negative issues always comes to us. We are against the divisive SARA issues," spokesman Kahfi Siregar said.

Siti Zuhro, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that ethnic and religious biases were still quite strong in the capital. "They are not as strong as it used to be, but they're still there."

More than 35.5 percent of the 10.1 million people in the capital are Javanese, as is Jokowi, while 27.65 percent are Betawi, or native Jakartan, as is Fauzi.

The city's other major ethnic groups are Sundanese, accounting for 15.27 percent; Chinese, accounting for 5.53 percent; Batak, accounting for 3.61 percent and Minangkabau, accounting for 3.18 percent.

Muslims make up 85 percent of the population, followed by Christians at 10.7 percent, Buddhists at 3.3 percent, and Hindus at 0.2 percent.

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