While the results won’t be made official for around two weeks, based on consistent results from numerous quick counts from various survey groups, it looks like the incumbents, Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and Djarot Saiful Hidayat, have emerged the clear winner of today’s election, with Anies Baswedan and his running mate Sandiaga Uno not too far behind.
However, many people see Ahok’s victory as a hollow one, since it looks like he did not manage to attain the amount of votes required to win today’s election outright. Due to election law, if no single candidate pair attains over 50% of the vote, then a runoff election is scheduled for the top two finishers.
The common thinking is that Ahok will lose in the runoff because the vast majority of those who voted for the third place finisher, Agus Yudhoyono (who seems to have attained just around 16-17% of the vote) will switch to Anies, as they were primarily voting against Ahok due to supposed blasphemy against Islam.
And that scenario may certainly play out. But it’s worth noting that Ahok managed to win the vote in some unexpected parts of Jakarta, including the polling station right next to the headquarters of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the hardliner group that has been at the forefront of the massive anti-Ahok protests.
Diulang 5 Kali, Ahok Tetap Menang di Markas FPI https://t.co/cIPL8WBd2Q pic.twitter.com/fLayN7ZDZn
— METRO TV (@Metro_TV) February 15, 2017
“Recounted 5 times, Ahok Still Wins at FPI headquarters”
Apparently witnesses could hardly believe that Ahok-Djarot came out on top at Jakarta Polling Station (TPS) #17 on Jalan Petamburan III in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, which is located right by FPI’s central headquarters (it’s also the place where FPI leader Rizieq Shihab cast his vote), leading to five recounts.
But the final results at TPS 17 were clear. There were 278 votes for Ahok-Djarot, 212 for Anies-Sandiaga and 38 votes for Agus-Sylviana.
Ahok also seems to have come out the overall winner in Pulau Seribu (where he made his supposedly blasphemous comment back in September) as well as at the polling station where Agus Yudhoyono voted (ouch).
If Ahok could win in his opponent’s strongholds, perhaps he will be able win over even more before the runoff election in April. The point is, don’t count him out yet.
