Jakarta goes to the polls

balinews

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Feb 14, 2010
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Jakarta voters lined up at polling booths on Wednesday to cast their votes in the Indonesian capital’s gubernatorial election, which has exposed religious and racial fault lines in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The vote is one of the 101 regional elections to be held simultaneously across the archipelago, but has hogged all the attention. The city's incumbent governor is Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian. Known by his Hakka nickname Ahok, he is in court on blasphemy charges after he said, in a campaign speech, that voters were deceived by hard-line Muslims who cited a Quranic verse in support of their view that non-Muslims shouldn't hold office.

Ahok is running against two candidates. Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono is the eldest son of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and Anies Baswedan, a former Education Minister who served in the administration of current President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

Agus is backed by his father's centrist Democratic Party, while Anies is backed by the right-wing Gerindra Party of Prabowo Subianto — Jokowi’s main rival in the 2014 presidential election. Gerindra aligned with conservative Islamic party PKS in the previous presidential election and has done so in the Jakarta polls. Ahok’s candidacy is supported by Jokowi’s party — the centrist and secular PDIP.

Having accusing Ahok of insulting Islam, hard-line Muslim groups, like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), have been organizing massive anti-Ahok protests since last October and now find themselves courted by his rivals.

http://time.com/4671464/indonesia-elections-islam-jakarta-ahok-democracy/
 

davita

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Mar 13, 2012
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The results are in and Ahok and Anies will have a run-off 2nd round on April 19th. Ahok only got about 4% more votes.
Agus was voted out, with a dismal vote, considering the pressure his father was presumed to have cast on the election in the background.
Meanwhile the justice system is still hearing the charge that Ahok committed blasphemy, which could, if he's found guilty, permit a max of 5 year sentence.
 

begonia

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Oct 10, 2007
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And it was a holiday in Bali yesterday for the election?
Doesn't make sense, it seems at the schools in Bali any excuse is good to have holidays. I wonder if it was schools holidays in the rest of Indonesia as well apart from Jakarta.
Life in Indonesia never stops to surprise me.
 

davita

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Mar 13, 2012
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Doesn't make sense, it seems at the schools in Bali any excuse is good to have holidays. I wonder if it was schools holidays in the rest of Indonesia as well apart from Jakarta.
Life in Indonesia never stops to surprise me.

It was a National holiday throughout the Nation. Many other Provinces had regional elections as well as Jakarta....but they were lost in the farce that Jakarta's election has produced.
BTW most other Provinces will have regional elections in 2018...no doubt another holiday.
There is a joke that says BA-LI means Banyak Libor.

edit: my wife said there was one in Buleleng but I never heard of any result...markit now confirms.
 

spicyayam

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Jan 12, 2009
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I had no idea, just know my son was off school and when I searched for elections, I only saw the Jakarta one. Well, I did see some political advertising around town. Some are quite laughable the pictures, like one guy wearing dark sunglasses. I was thinking of taking pictures of them, but then thought that is probably not a good idea.

As outspoken my wife is, she has no interest in voting or politics.
 

Mark

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Apr 19, 2004
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The results are in and Ahok and Anies will have a run-off 2nd round on April 19th. Ahok only got about 4% more votes.
Agus was voted out, with a dismal vote, considering the pressure his father was presumed to have cast on the election in the background.
Meanwhile the justice system is still hearing the charge that Ahok committed blasphemy, which could, if he's found guilty, permit a max of 5 year sentence.

Looks like Agus was just a stalking horse to peel votes away from Ahok. Now it seems pretty clear that the peci heads will prevail when Agus supporters swing their votes to Anies... Maybe Ahok should consider running for governor of Bali, where he would be much more appreciated.
 
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davita

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Mar 13, 2012
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Maybe Ahok should consider running for governor of Bali, where he would be much more appreciated.
The next Bali Gubernatorial election is slated for June 2018...so Ahok had better get his skates on to establish residency.
Just had an Idea!!!
Maybe I'll shoot him an email that my villa is for sale....