"The quick count rating is not official, so people should wait for the official results of the presidential election by the KPU," Prabowo, presidential candidate, affirmed.
Jakarta (Antara News) - Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto said he will rely on the General Elections Commissions (KPU) vote count results more than the quick count results by survey institutions regarding presidential polls on Wednesday (July 9).

Prabowo said the red-and-white coalition (a coalition that had nominated Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa as presidential and vice presidential candidates) will continue to call on its rank and file to remain calm and not to be provoked by other parties.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has earlier called on both presidential candidate pairs to refrain from indulging in any actions that might heat up the situation.

President Yudhoyono made the announcement at a press conference in Puri Cikeas, Bogor, Wednesday afternoon, responding to the increasingly heated situation after both candidate pairs, Prabowo-Hatta and Jokowi-JK, had claimed victory based on quick count results.

The unofficial quick counts by various survey institutions, such as SMRC, LSI, Indikator, CSIS-Cyrrus, Kompas, and RRI, showed that the Jokowi-JK pair had won an average 52 percent of the votes, while the Prabowo-Hatta duo had secured about 47 percent.

Meanwhile, other survey institutions, such as the LSN, IRC, Puskaptis, and JSI, gave a victory of average 51 percent to the Prabowo-Hatta pair and average 49 percent to the Jokowi-JK pair.

"In my capacity as president, head of state, who has not taken any sides, I call on the two camps to control the excessive tension between their supporters. Moreover, any provocative actions at the grassroots level can trigger a conflict," he stated.

The President also called on leaders and political elites to urge individual supporters to exercise restraint until the official results have been announced.

"The quick count rating is not official, so people should wait for the official results of the presidential election by the KPU," he affirmed.

Chief Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto had also appealed to the supporters of the presidential candidates to have a proportional response toward quick counts results, as the figures were not the official results of the election.

"The official results will be announced on July 22, 2014, after the accumulative vote count by the KPU," Joko stated in his text message to Antara on Thursday.

Therefore, presidential candidate Prabowo with his running mate Hatta Rajasa will leave the results of the vote counts to the KPU.

"We completely leave it to the KPU, which will carry out a real vote count, not a quick count," Prabowo said after a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the presidents Cikeas residence on Wednesday night.

He said that the real counting process by the KPU will take time, so it was wrong if any party had already declared a victory in the Wednesdays polls.

He also called on the other parties not to carry out actions in the field that will spark wars of perception claiming that their side was the winner.

"Now, the conditions are still volatile and we should restrain together," he said.

He also called on the media not to publish opinions that could mislead or provoke the public. He said his side respected the press freedom.

However, he added, there were still groups of media that continued to publish orchestrated facts. So, his rank and file will consistently monitor developments to ensure the absence of claims not based on facts in the field.

In the meantime, regarding vote counting, KPU Chairman Husni Kamil Manik asked the public to help supervise its recapitulation process of the presidential election.

"The Polling Committee (PPS) will today (Thursday) commence the recapitulation of votes at the village level until July 12. We offer a wide opportunity to the public to take part in the recapitulation process," the KPU chairman stated here on Thursday.

In addition, the KPU has also asked civil organizations and election activists to help in monitoring the recapitulation process.

Husni assured the public that the KPU and its rank and file will work professionally in carrying out the recapitulation task until the announcement of the winner on July 22, 2014.

After the polling stage and vote counting at polling stations on Wednesday (July 9), commencing Thursday, the PPS had carried out tiered recapitulation at the village, sub-district, district/municipality, and provincial levels.

The tiered recapitulation began on Thursday at the village level and will last for three days until Saturday.

The recapitulation will further be carried out at the sub-district level for three days until July 15, 2. The process will be continued by the local KPU at the district level from July 16 to July 17 and at the provincial level between July 20 and July 22.

Indonesian citizens flocked to polling stations to vote for a new president for the 2014-2019 term of office on Wednesday.

According to the KPU, a total of 190,307,134 eligible voters have been registered for the presidential election on July 9, 2014, with 486,866 polling stations established across the archipelago.

The total number of eligible voters included 2,038,711 overseas voters who cast their votes three to four days ahead of the nationwide polling day.

The presidential election is being contested by two pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto with Hatta Rajasa as his running mate and Jokowi who pairs with JK.

The winning pair will be officially inaugurated as the countrys seventh president and vice president in October 2014.***1***
(T.A014/INE)

Reporter: Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2014