The election count that wouldn’t die . . .

So first it’s “either Monday or Tuesday.”  Then it’s “Tuesday.”  Then it’s “4pm today” (which has passed, by the way, in Jakarta.)  It’s more painful to sit through than a Broadway turkey.

But foreign correspondent Wati has added some Minolos-on-the-ground reportage, which makes it bearable. (She is actually in Vietnam at the moment, madly IM-ing her friends in the ‘hood.)

The latest:

Good morning from uncle Ho to Uncle Sam.

I've been exchanging emails until way after midnight just before sahur (the meal you take at dawn, during Ramadan).

So much to do that I missed my sahur last night. Even though I usually skip food and only drink a glass of water . . .

So:  the name of our new president next October is JOKO WIDODO, in short JOKOWI-- a person from humble origins who has defeated the super rich and arrogant elites . . . I am proud of my country.

Sara, I also did not trust JKW’s "cleanliness" either but after listening and watching his performance ( which was either genuine or pure acting) I must say I want to give him a chance to bring about change. In fact he has done it by giving Jakarta’s poor residents a free health card, free school and moved few families who lived in shacks along the Jakarta riverbank to low cost apts. Of course he has not completed this program yet.

If nothing else, there is a glimpse of hope if we watch his actions as governor.

On the other hand, I was distressed to watch the performance of the Cendana family. I  doubt that if Pak Harto (Suharto) were still alive, he would not want Ical Bakrie nor Amien Rais and  PKS joining his Golkar paty.

In this context, I watched few Gerindra utube where it showed PRW [Prabowo]  using Mega and Halida Hatta to promote his image as close to Soekarno- Hatta legacy.

Meanwhile around his ranch he showed how he try to have " bibit unggul" by cross-breeding goats, exactly the concept used for cows in Pak Harto’s TAPOS! [Tapos was a 700-HA former Dutch-owned ranch that then- President Suharto used as a kind of agricultural “best practices” demo farm, and made gifts of the superior cross-bred animals to various dignitaries.]

But PRW did not mention a word that he copied this program from TAPOS.

Finally, Titiek [Prabowo-s ex-wife] seemed unaware that she was being used by her ex husband and willing to support PRW openly in public.

Unlike Mega[wati] and Halida, who that left PRW long time ago. . .

Jokowi is a member of Megawati’s party and surprisingly as the chairman of the party Mega entrusted Jokowi as the party candidate. On a personal note:  as much as my personal relation became strained with Mega, I respected her choice and the stand she took.

Mega just announced Jokowi as the winner tonight and there were tears in her eyes.

The final count: Jokowi 53.15%  Prabowo 46.85% from 33 provinces.

Done. Election finished . . . young people on social media are having a great time calling Prabowo a childish cowboy (he has tens of hectares of ranch with 130 horses . . . ) [I still want that horse I saw him  on a few months ago]

One twitter post claimed this is a good day and proved that Prabowo indeed has great talent. That is because it has been almost 2 years that Jokowi has been Jakarta’s governor and he is still unable to resolve Jakarta’s traffic nightmare. But today, after Prabowo made his decision [to contest the election], the whole city is deserted and like a ghost town....

[email a few hours later]

Breaking news

Prabowo, candidate no 1, has rejected the election committee’s result which will be announced within 1 hr. [and we saw how they kept to THAT promise.]

He accused the committee of acting against our constitution. [Nice work, since he thought they were in his pocket and they recused themselves—gosh I hate it when ethics rules the day, don’t you?]

Why did he wait until the end to protest? 

Our news broadcasts are now saying that if you are in a game then you have to protest before the game starts or after it has finished.

Interestingly, his running mate (Hatta who happens to be the in-law of president SBY) was not there when Prabowo contested this election.

Indonesia is now entering democracy with the style of Wild West...I guess.

So I wrote her back:

Thanks so much Wati. It is such great news. Now maybe the global community will put Prabowo back on the lists they had him on and forbid him entrance.  Unfortunately, I feel that it is the beginning of a really hard time for Indonesia. This crazed lunatic will not take this lying down. He is going to fight and I doubt it will be clean. Do you remember when Gus Dor won and PDI Struggle took to the street with violence and in the end Mega was VP, soon to be President. As they say, it is not over to the fat lady sings and I do not think that she has uttered one note yet. I hope that I am wrong and am just an old cynic who has seen to much.

Thanks for being the greatest foreign correspondent--but your job is far from over!!

The latest news snippet:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/07/22/indonesia-awaits-new-president.html

Despite complaints from the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa presidential candidate ticket, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has invited the pair, along with front-runner Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and running mate Jusuf Kalla, to attend the announcement of the 2014 presidential election result today.

KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik said on Monday that neither ticket was obliged to come to the meeting to officiate the winner, but both were welcome to attend.

“The national tabulation process has run well and there is no doubt that we will announce the winner tomorrow,” he said.

The KPU is scheduled to declare the winner at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The official vote tally at the KPU headquarters in Jakarta had reviewed results from 22 of 33 provinces as of Monday night. According to earlier vote-count results, Jokowi-Kalla was in the lead with a total of 41,127,377 votes, or 51.4 percent of the total of about 80 million legitimate votes.

Jokowi was winning in 14 provinces while Prabowo was leading in the remaining eight provinces.