Jokowi and Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) have been elected the province`s new governor and vice governor for the 2012-2017 period as announced by the Jakarta`s General Elections Commission recently, as they won the second round of the Jakarta gubernatorial elections, following the first round on July 7.
The former mayor of the Central Java`s city of Solo (Jokowi) and his running mate, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, were officially declared winners of the Jakarta gubernatorial runoff election here on Friday (Oct 28).
Jokowi, who is a Muslim was born in Surakarta (Solo), on June 21, 1961, and graduated from Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in 1985.
Meanwhile, Basuki Tjahja Purnama was formerly a district head in Bangka Belitung province, Sumatra.
Thus, after his inauguration on Monday, Jokowi is the 14th governor of the special province of Jakarta, where he will lead the metropolitan city with a total population of 10,187,595.
The Jakarta, popularly called as DKI Jakarta was previously led by the following governors.
First Raden Suwiryo (1945-1947 and 1950-1951), second Daan Jahja (1947-1950), third Sjamsuridjal (1951-1953), fourth Sudiro (1953-1960), fifth Soemarno Sosroatmodjo (1960-1964), sixth Henk Ngantung (1964-1965), seventh H. Ali Sadikin (1966-1977), eighth Tjokropranolo (1977-1982), ninth Raden Soeprapto (1982-1987), tenth Wiyogo Atmodarminto (1987-1992), eleventh Surjadi Soedirdja (1992-1997), twelfth Sutiyoso (1997-2002 and 2002-2007) and thirteenth Fauzi Bowo (2007-2012).
The former mayor who previously led Solo that has a population of around 537,000, from now on should concentrate his mind to lead the very heterogeneous capital city of Jakarta that is inhabited by more than 10 million people.
In mid September 2012 or before the second round of the gubernatorial polls (Sept 20), Jokowi pledged among other things to start Jakarta`s development from the slum area if he is elected governor of the capital city for the next five years.
According to him in a candidate debate here, the development of Jakarta should not start from the big business centers of Kuningan, Thamrin and Kota.
Jakarta`s slums would be developed to become an environmentally healthy residential area, he said, adding the drainage system would be improved, the houses would be well arranged with green open public areas.
He also expressed optimism that he would not have many difficulties in bringing modernity to slum areas in the capital.
"The Jakarta city administration has a large budget. What is needed is determination to bring the plan to reality," he said.
"One of our promises was to build multi-storeyed kampongs to eradicate slum areas in the capital city," he told the press, explaining that the multi-storeyed kampongs are different from low-cost public or private flats.
He noted that such multi-storeyed kampongs would allow for the development of public and green areas, and only a small amount of budget will be required.
Touching on the market, Jokowi said the traditional market centers in Jakarta are in bad condition, so shoppers are discouraged to go to traditional market centers as they have no adequate parking places, he said.
So, traditional market centers need rehabilitation to be competitive facing modern shopping centers, he said.
The Jokowi-Basuki pair beat the incumbent governor Fauzi Bowo and his running mate, Nachrowi Ramly (the Foke-Nara pair), by 351,315 votes.
"The total number of votes collected by Jokowi-Basuki in the runoff on September 20 stand at 2,472,130," said Sumarno, the chairman of the Working Group for Vote Casting and Collection of the Jakarta General Election Commission, at a plenary meeting.
The official results showed that Jokowi-Basuki won 53.92 percent of the total valid votes of 4,592,945, while Foke-Nara got 46.18 percent.
On the first round of the polls, Jokowi won 43 percent of the votes, falling short of the 51 percent majority needed to conclusively win the Jakarta gubernatorial elections.
In the first round, there were six pairs of contestants: Fauzi Bowo-Nachrowi Ramli, Hendardji Soepandji-Ahmad Riza Patria, Joko Widodo-Basuki Tjahja Purnama, Hidayat Nur Wahid-Didik J Rachbini, Faisal Basrie-Biem Benjamin and Alex Nurdin-Nono Sumpono.
Regarding who Jokowi is, the former vice president Jusuf Kalla commented, Jokowi is the figure expected by Jakartans to lead the capital city.
"Jakarta needs someone who can reach out to the people," he said in his residence here on Thursday (Sept 20) after receiving Jokowi.
Jusuf Kalla said he had supported Jokowi because he has experience, knowledge and will.
"My advise is Jokowi should make you feel more secure and able to move around smoothly," he said.
Jokowi who has received citations as the best mayor in the world in five consecutive years and obtained the Bung Hatta Award on his leadership and achievement during his term of office in developing the city of Solo, is of course expected to be able to fulfill his commitment to develop Jakarta as what he has promised.
(B003/S012)
Reporter: Bustanuddin
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
