Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The results of the General Elections Commission's (KPU) official vote counting have confirmed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's triumph over his rivals in several provinces as the deadline for the KPU to announce the winner of the recent presidential election nears.
Yudhoyono and his running mate, former Central Bank governor Boediono, won the most votes in East Java, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Sumatra and West Sumatra, according to vote counting by the elections commissions (KPUDs) in those regions.
Results of manual vote counting by the East Java General Elections Commission (KPUD) show Yudhoyono and his running mate won in every regency and municipality in the province with the single except of Lumajang.
East Java KPUD chairman Najib Hamid told state news agency Antara on Monday that of the 38 regencies and municipalities in East Java, Yudhoyono won 37.
Yudhoyono lost to Megawati Soekarnoputri and her running mate Prabowo Subianto in Lumajang.
Overall, Yudhoyono won 11.7 million votes, or 60.32 percent of the total, followed by Megawati with 5.9 million votes (30.42 percent) and the Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto team with 1.8 votes (9.26 percent). A total of 8.8 million eligible voters abstained.
In West Kalimantan, the Yudhoyono-Boediono ticket secured 54 percent of the vote, followed by Megawati Soekarnoputri-Prabowo Subianto with 37.1 percent and Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto, with 8.9 percent, Antara reported Monday. More than 2,300,000 people, or 73.5 percent of registered voters, cast a ballot in West Kalimantan.
In Palangkaraya, kompas.com reported, Yudhoyono-Boediono secured 48 percent of the more than 1,000,000 valid votes, followed closely by Megawati-Prabowo with 42.3 percent and Kalla-Wiranto with 9.4 percent.
The incumbent President also secured South Sumatra, winning 54 percent of the more than 3,800,000 valid votes cast. Again here Megawati-Prabowo came in second, with 39.5 percent, followed by Kalla-Wiranto with 6.4 percent.
Yudhoyono-Boediono won votes in 11 of South Sumatra's 15 regencies and municipalities.
Head of the South Sumatra KPUD, Anisatul Mardiah, said it would send the results of its vote counting to the central KPU on June 21.
Nopran Marjani, a witness from the Megawati-Prabowo team, however said he would file an official objection to the results, arguing many of the regional KPUDs failed to remove names registered twice on the electoral roll.
The West Sumatra KPUD has also named Yudhoyono-Boediono the winner of the election in the province, with the pair securing almost 80 percent of the vote, leaving both Kalla-Wiranto, with 14 percent, and Megawati-Prabowo with 5.9 percent, far behind.
In the region, 71 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. "(The participation rate in the presidential election) increased by 1 percent compared to April's legislative election," head of the West Sumatra KPUD, Husni Kamil Manik, said, according to vivanews.com.
At the KPU's headquarters in central Jakarta, KPU member Sri Nuryanti said vote counting has now been completed in most of Indonesia's regions. "Counting at the national level will take place from July 22 to July 24 at the KPU's headquarters," Yanti told tempointeraktif.com.
Yanti said the KPU would make vote counting for the presidential election more transparent than it was for April's legislative election by allowing election watchdogs and the press to observe the process.
She added that the KPU had coordinated with the police to tighten security during vote counting following the bomb blasts that struck the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Kuningan, South Jakarta, last Friday. "We believe the recapitulation will run safely," Sri said.