UNITED FOR THE NATION

· 7 minutes read

Even though quick count results have been made public, the official results of the 2019 elections are still to come from the General Elections Commission (KPU). Now it is time for the Indonesian nation to again strengthen the bonds of unity.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Now that the voting in the 2019 election on Wednesday (17/4/2019) has finished, all parts of the nation need to unify to face the challenges of the future, which are not light. Even though quick counts have been disclosed by a number of institutions, the official results can only be derived from the counting and tabulating of the KPU.

The quick counts done by Kompas R&D on Wednesday night in 2,000 polling stations (TPS) in 34 provinces showed that presidential candidate Joko Widodo and his running mate Ma\'ruf Amin won 54.52 percent of the votes, while Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno won 45.48 percent. The percentage was obtained from the samples that had been received, reaching 97 percent of the total.

The quick count results were not much different from the results of the Kompas surveys from late February to early March. The survey results showed that Jokowi and Amin\'s electability after extrapolation was 56.8 percent, while Prabowo and Sandi’s was 43.2 percent (Kompas, 20/3/2018).

After the vote, calls for reunification arose from national leaders and political elites, including the two presidential candidates, namely Jokowi and Prabowo.

Jokowi, who was accompanied by his vice presidential candidate, Amin, as well as a number of senior political figures of their supporting parties, said on Wednesday night that even though a number of quick counts showed he and Amin were in the lead, there would be no celebrations. He invited all parties to patiently await the results of the KPU count. Jokowi also invited all elements of society to reunite.

"Let us reunite as brothers and sisters of the nation and the country after the legislative and presidential elections, establish our harmony as brothers and sisters of the nation and the country," he said.

Separately, at his residence in Kertanegara, Jakarta, Prabowo asked his supporters not to be provoked and to avoid all forms of excessive action, illegal acts and any acts of violence.

Prabowo also claimed victory with a percentage of about 62 percent based on the results of what he called a “real count” in 320,000 polling stations, 40 percent of the total number of stations. With regard to that, Prabowo asked his supporters to watch over the official vote count and guard the C1 documents from the polling stations. Prabowo also asked his supporters to wait for the official results from the KPU.

The chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Megawati Soekarnoputri, also said she would wait for the official election results from the KPU. Megawati called for PDI-P members and sympathizers not to overly rely on the results of the quick vote counts, which are still not final. They were encouraged to guard the people\'s voices at polling stations and prevent fraud. A number of quick count results show that PDI-P won the most votes in the 2019 legislative election.

Separately, the commander of the Democratic Party’s joint task force, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, said his party respected and awaited the official results of the vote counts from the KPU. He said if there are indications of fraud, he would appeal for the evidence to be collected properly, and then reported in accordance with prevailing laws. He also invited his party’s members and Indonesian people as a whole to refrain from doing inappropriate things.

Statesmanship

The chairman of the central executive board of Muhammadiyah, Haedar Nashir, expressed the importance for the elites to show great spirit and statesmanship when addressing the provisional results of the 2019 election. "Avoid speculative statements that provide chances for mutual suspicion and post-election political divisions," he said.

According to him, the final results of the 2019 election are in the hands of the KPU. "Anyone who has the people\'s mandate should be humble, stay away from euphoria and arrogance and take the people\'s trust as a mandate and responsibility for Indonesia\'s progress. For those who have not yet obtained the people\'s mandate, accept with an open heart and high spirit of statesmanship, "Haedar said.

The electoral process, which went well, safely and peacefully, according to the chairman of the executive council of Nahdlatul Ulama, Robikin Emhas, was the achievement of the Indonesian people. Therefore, all parties should be grateful and accept the election results, whatever they are, with the spirit of statesmen.

"With the completion of the voting, the competition to win the sympathy of the people is over as well. Let\'s be mutually helpful and unite for an advanced Indonesia, whoever is to be chosen in the election,"he said.

The unity and attitude of statesmen, especially from the political elites, is very much needed because the challenges facing this nation are not light and need the unity of all the nation\'s citizens to deal with them.

One of the challenges facing Indonesia in the economic field is the current account deficit. The deficit in the current account indicates that the need for the United States dollar is greater than the ability to earn it. As a result, the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar is quite volatile.

In 2017, the current account was in a deficit of US$16.19 billion, which was 1.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2018, the deficit jumped to US$31.06 billion, 2.98 percent of GDP.

The chief economist of PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk, Adrian Panggabean, said that the current account deficit is only a symptom of the roots of the current national economic problems, namely a manufacturing industry that has not been strong, dependence on foreign capital and low productivity growth.

Meanwhile, Febrio Nathan Kacaribu, a lecturer at the School of Economics and Business of the University of Indonesia, said that in order to maintain a climate conducive for investment structural reforms must be continued through infrastructure development and consistent improvement of the business climate.

Problems of general election

KPU chairperson Arief Budiman said that in general the voting proceeded smoothly and peacefully. A number of reports about technical obstacles are to be dealt with as soon as possible.

The KPU stressed that voting and counting in polling stations in Indonesia was conducted transparently and openly, involving the supervision of many parties. In addition to the General Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), monitoring was also carried out by foreign observers, non-governmental organizations from within and outside the country and members of the general public.

On the security side, the head of the Public Information Bureau of the National Police’s Public Relations Division, Brig. Gen. (Pol) Dedi Prasetyo, said that the security and order situation was very conducive to voting.

He disclosed that the various potential disturbances that can still occur after the voting are the seizure of ballots, threats, persecution of officers of the polling stations and polling organizing committee (KPPS) members, arson, destruction and clashes among different people.

Meanwhile, the Bawaslu received reports about problems such as shortages of ballots, interchangeable ballots, polling stations that were not friendly to disabled people, voters who were not registered in the final voters list and the use of electronic ID cards that did not match the domiciles of the bearers.

A Bawaslu member, Fritz Edward Siregar, said that so far there was the potential for repeat votes at 38 polling stations. Moreover, supplementary elections would likely to be carried out at 1,395 polling stations in Papua. There were 810,000 polling stations in the 2019 elections. (IAN/INA/IKI/FLO/AGE/SAN/REK/INK/NTA/ SPW/FRD/IGA/DIM/JUD/EDN)

Editor:

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