Risma, Bambang win election re-run in Surabaya

Risma, Bambang win election re-run in Surabaya
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 08/05/2010 7:08 PM | Archipelago

The Surabaya election commission announced on Thursday mayoral candidate Tri Rismaharini and her running mate Bambang Dwi Hartono won the re-run of the polls on Tuesday.

Risma and Bambang, however, will have to wait for endorsement from the Constitutional Court, which had ordered the election re-run due to massive and systemic offenses occurred during the first polls on June 2.

The final vote count conducted by the poll commission revealed that Risma and Bambang, who were nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, won 40.8 percent of the vote, ahead of their closest rivals Arif Afandi and Adies Kadir who secured 36.5 percent of the vote.

If the court confirmed her victory, Risma will become the first female mayor of the country’s second largest city.

The repeat election saw a low turnout, with only around 933,500 or 43 percent of 2.14 million eligible voters exercising their right to vote.

Bambang contested the polls as a running mate after serving as the mayor for two consecutive periods, the maximum term of office permitted by the law.