Who reported it first? The Dallas Morning News. Go, Texas! (first time THAT ever came out of my lips)

Jakarta governor wins Indonesian presidency

Posted: Jul 22, 2014 4:20 AM EDT Updated: Jul 22, 2014 12:23 PM EDT

By NINIEK KARMINI and ALI KOTARUMALOS
Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo, who captured the hearts of millions of Indonesians with his common man image, was declared the winner Tuesday of the country's presidential election, calling it a victory for all of the nation's people.

A former furniture exporter known to most as "Jokowi," Widodo was the first candidate in a direct presidential election in Indonesia with no ties to the former dictator Suharto, who ruled for 30 years before being overthrown in 1998.

"This is a victory for all Indonesian people," Widodo, who received 53 percent of the vote, according to the Election Commission, said in a televised speech. "We hope this victory will pave the way to build Indonesia to be an independent economy."

The other contender in the July 9 election, former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, declared he was withdrawing from the contest shortly before the final numbers were released by the commission, saying there was massive fraud during the election, and that it was unfair and undemocratic.

. . . .

"We reject the 2014 presidential election, which is illegitimate, and therefore we withdraw from the ongoing process," he said Tuesday.

Observers of the election said they were generally fair and free, with minimal abnormalities. Maswadi Rauf, a political professor at the University of Indonesia, said he saw no sign of significant fraud, as alleged by Subianto.

Subianto's rejection of the results "reflects the real attitudes of the elite, who are not yet ready to accept losing," Rauf said. "We are still in a transition to democracy, which is indeed not our culture. And what is happening indicates we are still immature, we need to learn."

There were no immediate reports of violence Tuesday. About 100 Subianto supporters held a peaceful protest about 300 meters (yards) from the Election Commission building in downtown Jakarta, chanting "Prabowo is the real president" and holding banners saying that the commission should stop cheating.

. . .

Final results showed that Widodo, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, received just under 71 million votes, or 53 percent of the more than 133 million valid ballots cast, while Subianto got 62.6 million votes, or 47 percent.

Voter turnout was 71 percent, down slightly from the 2009 presidential election, when it was 72 percent.

And the Jakarta wags weigh in:

Dear Wati

I have been following the BBC, Jazeera and Reuters and have only just received news of the declaration which was eventually made at 20.00 hrs JKT time, two hours after promised declaration. No indication yet of any public reaction, or of any post-declaration reaction from the loser. It would go some way to resuscitating his reputation if he were to offer gracious acceptance. I never met Prabowo but his brother Hashim/Hasyim was chairman of “my” company’s JV so I met him many times at meetings and during VIP visits, etc. and he projected himself well without any sense of arrogance. But that was 20 years ago.

BTW I have attached a tabulation of US Presidential vote results back to 1900. The 6.3% superiority is strangely close to the McKinley/Bryan result of 1900, and more than eight of the 28 subsequent results. Not exactly a landslide but certainly a clear majority that even Mayhor Daly would have found difficult to fix.

May the presidential transition progress securely and in short,  “Hidup Indonesia!”

T

Thank you T.

Regretfully people change. As I mentioned I know Prabowo relatively well. He came when my dad passed away . I went to his son ( with Titiek Soeharto)’s first fashion show in the Hotel du Crillon in Paris 3 years ago and met him there.

Prabowo’s chief assistant and deputy chairman in Gerindra, Fadli Zon, know me well. We met many times since his library in Jkt (financed by Hasyim) has a collection of my dad’s speeches, a few of which we don't even have in in my dad’s library.

Hasyim came with his father the late Pak Sumitro  when the overseas trust bank (OTB ) in Hong Kong opened its representative office when  I was the chief rep.  

But I was surprised to see the arrogance of their attitude in recent interviews as compared to the Humbleness of Jokowi, whom I never met.

I think such is life . . . people change for better or worse.

Will be in touch

Wati

There it is, friends.

What does it mean for Aceh, cocoa farming, and continuing destruction of the rainforest?  We shall see . . . but we will not hold our breaths.

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.

from the Indonesian text-messaging universe . . .

 . . . comes a string of SMS messages, starting with one from Dr. Meutia Farida Hatta Swasono, currenty State Minister for Women’s Empowerment in Indonesia, serving under President Yudhoyono since 2010. She previously served as the Minister of Women’s Affairs in the United Indonesia Cabinet from 2004-2009.

According to the latest configurations, Prabowo will be seen as the winning party. That’s why all the black- hearted people are now standing behind him. The koalisi (coalition) is a strategy to strengthen their power. Horrible. Even the crook who sins on the Hajj, on the road to heaven—he will be free. Hopefully everybody who has contributed to this huge corruption will receive the curse from God the Almighty. What a mess it is now here.

Wati’s friend J responded:

I believe in the honest & genuine Indonesians – [with WHITE, not BLACK hearts] - and I believe that in the end GOD will somehow show the way how to win over the rest!

I will not give up hope on these millions of [good] Indonesians.

I have to believe and I believe the more we TRUST GOD, GOD will grant his blessings - for the children of Indonesia!

As Jokowi said:

"Buat generasi muda adik2 saya ... Kalian adalah pemilik masa depan Indonesia, menentukan arah Indonesia!". [The future of Indonesia is in its youth.]

Jokowi may be far from perfect, but then again who isn't! I'm just amazed how this man can ignite the love, the pride, the enthusiasm of the TRUE Indonesians (young & old, poor & rich, blue collar & white collar, regardless of faiths, ethnicity, positions . . . )  to build a better Indonesia.   

GOD Bless Indonesia!

Then from another texter:

" Yes, mbak. That's what I am afraid of. For the black campaign to continue and still go on to discredit no 2 [Jokowi]. Thank GOD the bung Hatta award was bestowed to Jokowi [in 2010, then mayor of Solo City] and Ahok [Lieutenant Governor of Jakarta, in 2013.  Mohammad Hatta was Indonesia’s first Vice President, and the Bung Hatta Anti-Corruption Award was established by his daughters in his memory.]  So how can the bung Hatta award given to a crook if JKW got it?"

Lets keep praying and hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Then Wati chimed in:

Agree, that's our parents wisdom that runs in our blood.

Hehehe...I spent millions in Vietnamese currency exchanging SMS messages with Meutia sometimes even late at night since she is really GAPTEK [technology-impaired] and admitted it.  She hardly uses emails . . .forget twitter, Youtube and other social media means of communication.

No wonder from our President’s children such as Mega, Rachma, Guruh, Guntur, Sukma, Tutut,  Yenni ranchman . . . Meutia is the closest one to Bapak. [Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, 1901-1987, was a renowned and well-loved spiritual leader and teacher; called Bapak as a term of reverence, like “Father.”]

I remember when she was a minister under SBY, and Bapak was hospitalized at the end of his days, Meutia came often after her out of town trips to the hospital and stay there staring at Bapak who was already unconscious. Even after midnight.

This is real friendship that we should value for the rest of our lives.

Love

War criminals behaving badly

 “All murderers are punished, unless they kill in large numbers, and to the sound of trumpets.”

          --Voltaire

These words are the first to appear in the opening scenes of the film “The Act of Killing,” which shows that the Indonesian Death Squads of the 60’s through the late 90’s are alive and well and highly supported in Indonesia.  They’re now dressed in the garb of the so-called “Pancasila Youth” paramilitary organization, which appears at legislative and political events of every type. They revel in being ‘gangsters’ and in the film they claim this word signifies ‘free men.’ Prabowo has admitted to being a part of these activities during his tenure as General in the TNI, though only the kidnapping bits, and only because he was ordered to.

And now, the post-election smear campaign, as brought to us by our Indonesian based cub reporters, has taken an unsettling turn: Prabowo’s supporters, having come up with nothing new to blame on Jokowi, are accusing his camp of the same anti-communist genocide, torture, and unlawful military action that Prabowo was accused of.

Jusuf Wanadi, Chinese Indonesian politician and his brother, well-known businessman Sofjan, have been supporters of Jokowi (which makes sense, since if Prabowo is elected and makes good on his uber-isolationist threats, it’ll be a cold day in the hot place before any type of significant company will want to do business there).  In his youth Jusuf was a student activist and in in 1971 co-founded the well-known Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a non-profit think tank that advised the government on social, international, political and economical issues, and which is still active today.  However, during Suharto’s presidency the group was seen as suspect because of its inclusion of Catholic and Chinese interests. Sofjan was an anti-communist activist during the 1960’s, and Prabowo has now tied all these tidbits into a neat package and delivered it as proof that everyone surrounding Jokowi was actually more involved in war crimes than he ever was.  They’re “colonialist,” they’re “imperialist . . .” but wait . . . wasn’t that Prabowo’s actual campaign platform?

Prabowo recently gave an interview to BBC in which he declared victory in the face of overwhelming polls to the contrary, and stated that if by some chance (voter fraud, he assumed) he lost, he would recede quietly into private life, where he really wanted to be anyway, because he is only running for president, you see, because his country needs him.

In a pig’s eye.

However, out of the gate he springs yesterday, maligning anyone who might have even dry-cleaned Jokowi’s suits. There’s talk of him even appealing the decision to the Constitutional court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) whose former chairman is (surprise!) a member of Prabowo’s campaign team.

I know southeast Asia well enough to know that there is no side, or party, or politician, who is not tied to Indonesia’s inglorious past in some way.  One side does not commit war crimes while the other side sits on the sidelines knitting mittens and smiling beatifically. 

But I also know that this last ditch “I’m not the war criminal—he is!” ploy reeks of desperation.  If it works, however . . . .well, look who we’ll be dealing with.  Sound the trumpets.

Last comment before (during) the election

Indonesian voters are at the polls today (since it is the 9^th in Indonesia).  Campaigning is not allowed in the days leading up to the election, and according to our men (and women) on the street, all seems quiet.  No one knows who will win.

Indonesians living abroad and more progressive Indonesians are by and large voting for Jokowi.  Prabowo is a charismatic man who is attracting the attention of younger voters who do not remember that he is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people and is considered by many countries to be a war criminal. 

He also has been helped in his campaign by (and it makes me sick to report this) US Public Relations professionals responsible for past Republican campaigns.

There’s enough blame to go around, my friends, if he wins.

The Selling of Prabowo

Indonesia's presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto gestures as he leaves a campaign rally in Ciparay near Bandung, West Java (7/3). REUTERS/Stringer

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta 

July 5, 2014

Rob Allyn, Prabowo Subianto’s American spin doctor, has worked with politicians outside the United States before, not just in Indonesia.

Allyn helped Mexico’s Vicente Fox win the country’s top job in 2000. That year, Fox knocked off the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which had been in power for 71 years.

In Indonesia today, where Prabowo is running for president against Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, Allyn has lined up with the candidate who seems more deeply entwined with the establishment. Both the Golkar Party, which dominated Indonesia for decades under the Suharto regime and the ruling Democratic Party, have joined Prabowo’s coalition.

“I’m a businessman, not a politician,” Allyn told D Magazine in 2001.

Mexico’s constitution prohibits outsiders from engaging with the country’s "political affairs.” Hundreds of journalists and human rights observers have been expelled under the law. But that didn’t stop Allyn.

“Attuned to sensitivities in Mexico over the involvement of foreigners in the country's elections, Mr. Allyn traveled to Mexico under pseudonyms like José de Murga and Alberto Aguirre to advise Mr. Fox on polling, wardrobe and speeches,” Simon Romero wrote for The New York Times in 2005.

“Since then, Mr. Allyn has branched out to work on campaigns in other countries. He counts among his clients the Golkar Party in Indonesia; the prime minister of the Bahamas, Perry Christie; and, most recently, Dumarsais Siméus, the Haitian-born Texas millionaire who aspires to be elected president of Haiti.”

Allyn studied under Henry Kissinger at Georgetown, helped George W. Bush become governor of Texas in 1994 and consults for large corporations like Coca Cola.

He returned to work for Fox in 2005 to lobby for Mexico’s interests in the United States - and assist Fox’s protege Felipe Calderon ahead of the next election, according to Mexican media. (Calderon’s people claimed they only ever spoke to Allyn informally.)

At the time, Calderon was billing himself as honest and patriotic, but he wasn’t having much luck. So Calderon changed his tactics, launching a series of attack ads against his main rival, the popular Mexico City mayor Lopez Obrador. Calderon then surged in the polls.

Narco News, an online newspaper covering the drug war from Latin America, described Allyn’s activities: “incendiary television spots, falsified public opinion polls, and ‘reports’ based on rumor and innuendo, to sow fear and loathing into the election campaign.”

Allyn never admitted to the link with Calderon. But for many critics, the connection was clear enough. At the time, negative ads were “a new phenomenon in Mexican democracy,” Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in 2006. “There are fingerprints of US political electoral strategists all over [the election] because it’s not something that has traditionally been used.”

Allyn is clearly a master of his craft. The D Magazine article depicted him making his pitch to Fox, taking him and his staff through a six-hour seminar on the history of political advertising. Fox was immediately sold.

Allyn follows in the footsteps of Edward Bernays, widely regarded as “the father of public relations.” Bernays also plied his trade outside the United States. The United Fruit Company, for example, hired him to direct a disinformation campaign against Jacobo Arbenz, the Guatemalan president who tried to put through ambitious agrarian reforms in the 1950s. Arbenz was labeled a communist, and the US government intervened to overthrow him.

Joko too has been labeled a communist - not to mention a secret Christian born of Chinese-Singaporean parents - in an Indonesian race for president that has been marred by more smears than any other.

"It is very clear that this year's smear campaign against Jokowi is unprecedented in post-Suharto elections," Marcus Mietzner, a professor at Australian National University, told Tempo. "And it is equally clear that it is modeled around Republican campaigns against Democratic candidates in the US. Jokowi's depiction as a Singaporean and Christian is a direct copy of Obama's portrayal as a Kenyan and Muslim in 2008."

Daniel Lund, an Obredor pollster, elaborated on the consequences of spin doctors' actions in his country. “US political consultants at their best produce mischief,” Lund explained. “They may know how to manipulate media, but do they contribute to the good governance of a country, to the democratic maturity of a nation? I would argue no.”

http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2014/07/05/080590630/The-Selling-of-Prabowo

The 3rd debate: both the policy wonk and the platitudes-lover seem to overplay the nationalist card

I cannot wait to hear what Wati has to say about last night’s debate (the third—how time flies)  but in the meantime, the Jakarta Post, albeit pro-Jokowi, seems to feel that he did even better this time.

He seemed to man up in the foreign policy department, advocating diplomacy but stressing a tough-guy stance on external threats that rivaled Prabowo (and I do mean tough guy; his actual phrase was “I will seriously cause a rumble.”) 

He gave the nod Muslim supporters who’d been lukewarm concerning his ambivalent stance on religion by stating that he would support the establishment of a Palestinian state. And he displayed a degree of “foreign policy wonkiness” that played well with Jakarta elites as well as the younger crowd, while Prabowo stuck to the platitudes of nationalism and national prosperity.

 

And Jokowi (bless his little heart) told the audience that he would make resource conservation a priority.

Get me the smelling salts.

Yes, yes, we all know they say one thing and do another, but the actual words coming from lips is a BIG deal in this election, and hopefully puts the Aceh provincial government on notice that it may no longer be the big love-fest with the foreign extraction interests if he wins.

Which of course could make said interests pony up lots of anti-Jokowi campaign money in these last 2 weeks.  Hey. It’s what they’d do in the US.

Sigh.

Prabowo was a little more circumspect, saying that he promised to protect the country’s natural resources . . . from foreign control.  He’d allow their elimination . . . as long as it was Indonesia making the money.

Foreign affairs analyst Wiryono Sastrohandoyo said the two candidates attempted to be nationalistic in their views to woo voters, which could scare off foreign investors. “Bringing up this nationalistic sentiment will create fear among foreign investors,” he said.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) presidential candidate Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (R)gave an impressive performance during the third televised debate organized by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on international affairs and defense issues, two subjects considered strong suits for his rival, Gerindra Party’s Prabowo Subianto (L). The debate, which was moderated by an international law professor from the University of Indonesia (UI), Hikmahanto Juwana, focused on international affairs and national defense. JP/Jerry Adiguna

Jakarta Post Summaries (the sound eerily the same)

Prabowo Subianto
The foundation for our foreign affairs and defense is the prosperity of the nation. Foreign affairs will mean nothing if domestically we are weak. If we are poor, then we will not be highly regarded by other nations. Domestic conditions reflect the strength of our foreign policy. Indonesia should secure its national resources as too many of them are flowing overseas. We should improve our domestic economic strength. Indonesia does not want to have enemies; 1,000 friends are not enough but just one enemy is too many.

Joko “Jokowi” Widodo

The foundation of our foreign policy is to be “free and active”. This would be carried out with four strategies: Protect migrant workers; protect natural and maritime resources; improve productivity and competitiveness; and participate in improving regional and global security. Around 80 percent of our ambassadors’ time should be spent on marketing our products. The world’s geopolitics has shifted from the West to the East. This has created a greater chance for Indonesia to play a significant role.

read more: 

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/06/23/jokowi-wins-prabowo-s-turf.html

For Aceh voters, one candidate is just as rotten as the other

Here’s the first report from our “average citizens” in Aceh whom I asked to tell me what people were saying about the candidates, and how they personally felt about both Prabowo and Jokowi.

Hi Ibu Sara--

 It is very difficult to make a decision for this election. Currently all media and social media are releasing black campaigns. To me this is really disgusting for a presidential election. Everyone claims that they are good candidates but actually they are not.

Currently in Aceh, the chief of Party Aceh declared that they will make Prabowo the president of Indonesia. According to rumors I read in the local Aceh newspaper a week ago, Party Aceh received one billion rupiah when they campaigned for the governor election and now Party Aceh will return it by campaigning for the Gerindra party for Prabowo to be the next Indonesian President. 

In Aceh, especially in Banda Aceh and Bireun, from my personal observation, people do not care about this election, even though Prabowo’s banner is everywhere and Prabowo visited Aceh last week for more campaigning. 

As far as “word on the street:” people are still confused about who to vote for.  There is no pressure yet from Party Aceh; everything looks calm still.  Neither candidate is who people in Aceh want. And at this time it seems that people are not frightened by Party Aceh for Prabowo [meaning there does not seem to be any voter intimidation yet].

  

I asked I. and S. and they both said they will not go to vote but will stay at their office on election day (July 9th).

You wrote, “Jokowi is rather weak and being controlled by Megawati, but he has a progressive agenda and is truly promoting diversity.  Prabowo is a war criminal whose supporters include very fundamentalist groups who do not believe in free speech or equality and are very much against the idea of Pancasila even though Prabowo says he supports it.” Although I hear these statements a lot on the street, I don’t know if they are true or not, because both of them claimed that they will do what they say (and I don’t trust this).

Overall from my personal opinion, both candidates will be very dangerous for the country and especially for Aceh. If Jokowi wins the election, people in Aceh say that Aceh province will be divided in 3 provinces, and t most of Aceh’s citizens do not want this to happen.  

If Prabowo wins the election, the GAM (Party Aceh) will have more power to control all of Aceh, and Aceh citizens will start complaining about this situation. 

I don’t know who I will vote for. I’m still waiting and seeing.  Currently I don’t like either.

Thanks Ibu Sara--