TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In contrast to predictions which had previously arose, the votes collected by Golkar Party and Democrat Party in Makassar, South Sulawesi, had dropped significantly compared to the votes they collected back in 2009 General Election.
According to the Director of Indonesian Politics Index (IPI), Suwandi Idris Amir, Golkar is predicted to get only seven to eight chairs against the previous prediction of 11 chairs in Makassar Parliamentary Board (DPRD). The Democrat Party which had been predicted to get nine chairs is now predicted to get only six to eight chairs. Meanwhile, the Great Indonesian Movement party (Gerindra) and the National Democrat (NasDem) party are surprisingly predicted to get more chairs than previously predicted number.
"The drop on votes for Golkar is caused by Aburizal Bakrie’s figure that is not able to elevate the party's electability. While Democrat is shrouded by corruption cases which currently hit their cadres," said Suwandi to Tempo on Friday, April 18. According to Suwandi, the increasing votes for Gerindra are caused by the figure of Prabowo Subianto and NasDem by its good political machine.
The Assistant to Coordinator of Indonesia Survey Circle for South and West Sulawesi, Ahmad Nur, said that the decreased votes were due to inactivity of the Chief of Makassar Golkar branch, Supomo Guntur, who had not done any significant moves after the mayor election.
"The popularity of Prabowo and Jokowi also gave a strong impact in the regions," said the Democrat Party's Chief for Makassar, Adi Rasyid Ali.
ARDIANSYAH RAZAK BAKRI
