Papuan people look on at a polling station as election officials count ballots on Feb 14, 2024. - AFP
JAKARTA: Nobody voted for the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka pair at a polling station (TPS) in Atti village in South Papua, where Ganjar Pranowo and his running mate Mahfud MD came out with the highest number of votes.
The polling station served 238 registered voters, 117 men and 121 women. Among them, 233 voted for Ganjar and Mahfud while five others voted for the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar pair.
Before the voting closed on Wednesday (Feb 14), Maxi Amkai, a local community leader, predicted that the residents would be more inclined to choose either Anies and Muhaiman or Ganjar and Mahfud.
Maxi said that the villagers had learned about the presidential candidates online, influencing their choice on election day.
"We already know the story [since the beginning], even though we are in a remote area,” he said as quoted by the tempo.co news portal.
“We know about the history of Indonesia. The internet also helps us access information."
The residents of Atti village enthusiastically participated in the presidential election on Wednesday. Many were already seen at the polling station at 8am.
Diana Cristiana Da Costa, a local elementary school teacher, said the villagers were very enthusiastic on election day.
"I have just returned from the church, other residents were already seen gathering at the polling station. From high school students to elderly people," said Diana.
However, Prabowo and Gibran are still ahead in the overall vote count in South Papua. The pair received 14,695 votes, or 72.74 per cent, with votes from 266 of 1,770 polling stations counted as of Friday afternoon at 5pm, according to the pemilu2024.kpu.go.id vote tally monitoring website.
Meanwhile, Ganjar and Mahfud were in second place with 3,498 votes, or 17.31 per cent of the total, and Anies and Muhaimin only secured 2,010 votes, or 9.95 per cent.
South Papua is a newly created province that was carved out of Papua province in November 2022, and it consists of the Asmat, Boven Digoel, Mappi and Merauke regencies. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
