Sohe supporters clash with police

By Khairul Saleh
Source : The Jakarta Post

At least a dozen police officers and four supporters of losing gubernatorial candidates Syahrial Oesman and Helmy Yahya (Sohe) were injured during a clash outside the South Sumatra General Elections Commission (KPUD) office Tuesday.

The crowd was made up of members of political parties and mass organizations supporting the losing pair. They demanded the KPUD postpone vote counting and the plenary session and immediately follow up on reports of violations across the province.

The protesters attempted to push their way into the office but were held back by police. They later threw rocks and sticks at police, injuring several of them.

Protest coordinator Suparman Romans was unable to meet with KPUD members because they were all at Palembang City Police headquarters to discuss the upcoming vote count.

The KPUD is expected to move the vote counting forward to Tuesday, from Sept. 14, as originally scheduled.

However, the count was canceled because of the rally at the KPUD.

Suparman told the protesters to disperse after the Palembang City Police and South Sumatra Provincial Police recommended the KPUD postpone the vote counting and plenary session.

"The postponement aims to prevent clashes on a larger scale," Palembang City Police chief Sr. Comr. Lucky Hermawan said.

Tuesday's protest was the second by Sohe supporters. A day earlier, they also demonstrated outside the KPUD office demanding votes be counted immediately.

The protesters are claiming there were election violations and vote rigging in Musi Banyuasin regency and are demanding the KPUD recount votes in the regency, especially in Sungai Lilin, Bayung Lencir and Lalan districts, where they strongly believe vote rigging occurred. According to KPUD data, only eight regencies and municipalities in the province have handed over their tally results. They are Lubuk Linggau, Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU), South OKU, Lahat, Musi Banyuasin, Musi Rawas, Banyuasin and Palembang.

Ogan Komering Ilir, Ogan Ilir, East OKU, Muara Enim, Pagaralam and Prabumulih submitted their results later in the day but the provincial KPUD has yet to count the votes from these regions.

The KPUD data show the Alex Noerdin and Eddy Yusuf (Aldy) pair, nominated by the Golkar Party, National Mandate Party, Reform Star Party, Bung Karno Nationalist Party and Democratic Party, have taken the lead with 1,866,390 votes (51.4 percent), followed by the Sohe pair, nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, Justice Prosperity Party, United Development Party and dozens of other minor parties with 1,764,373 votes, or 48.6 percent.

Quick counts conducted by the Indonesian Survey Network showed the Aldy pair garnering 51.2 percent of votes and the Sohe pair with 48.8 percent.