T

he results from two separate quick counts in the Lampung gubernatorial election have revealed fierce rivalry between two candidates as the counts show different results.

Lampung provincial administration was kept very busy on Wednesday, as the province held not only the legislative election but also the gubernatorial election, which was contested by four tickets: Berlian Tihang-Mukhlis Basri; M. Ridho Ficardo-Bachtiar Basri; Herman HN-Zainudin Hasan and Alzier Dianis Thabranie-Lukman Hakim.

Vote counting for the gubernatorial election was held in the evening after local poll organizers completed the vote count for the legislative election.

Based on a quick count by the Saiful Mujani Research and Consultant (SMRC) survey institution, Ridho and Bachtiar, supported by the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), garnered 43.66 percent of the vote, far outshining other candidates.

According to SMRC, Herman HN and Zainuddin Hasan, nominated by the National Mandate Party (PAN) and non-legislative parties, won 32.94 percent of the vote; while Berlian Tihang and Mukhlis Basri, nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), won 15.7 percent. Alzier and Lukman Hakim, backed by the Golkar Party and the Hanura Party, came in last with 7.7 percent.

SMRC, which was reportedly hired by the Ridho-Bachtiar campaign team, was confident that the ticket would win in a single round. In its survey, SMRC collected samples from 300 polling stations across the province.

SMRC'€™s results were challenged by the Herman-Zainuddin campaign team, which said the quick count it commissioned was based on votes cast at all polling stations across Lampung and it was confident that its ticket had won.

'€œWe believe there are systematic efforts to build public perception that a particular gubernatorial candidate pair won. It can be misleading and very awkward in practice,'€ said the executive director of the Center for Strategic Studies and Policy'€™s (Pussbik) in Lampung, Aryanto, who is also data tabulation team leader of the Herman-Zainuddin team, on Thursday.

According to Lampung Pussbik, as of Thursday noon, Herman and Zainudin garnered 46 percent of the vote, followed by Ridho and Bachtiar with 34 percent, Berlian and Mukhlis with 14 percent, and Alzier and Lukman with 6 percent. Aryanto said the motive behind the SMRC quick count had to be questioned because legally vote counts for the gubernatorial election should be carried out after the legislative election.

'€œHow could they possibly obtain data and announce the quick count results that fast if vote counting for the gubernatorial election was carried out at night at polling stations?'€ said Aryanto.

'€œPoll workers only finished counting votes for the gubernatorial election at polling stations at 11 p.m.,'€ he added.

He claimed that his team conducted vote counts at all polling stations in more than 650 villages across Lampung. Meanwhile, holding the two elections simultaneously had caused confusion among voters, especially the elderly and the illiterate.

'€œThe four ballot papers confused us, let alone an additional ballot for the gubernatorial election,'€ said Khadijah, 62, of North Telukbetung, Bandarlampung, on Thursday.

The huge number of ballots resulted in vote counting for both elections lasting until 11 p.m. on Wednesday.