SBY leads election based on KPU’s message count

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/09/2009 3:28 PM | Presidential Election
Matching the unofficial quick counts, the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) short messaging service-based vote tabulation reveals that incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) leads the pack.

As of Thursday afternoon, SBY and his running mate Boediono had secured 61.66 percent of around 18.7 million votes counted. Megawati Soekarnoputri and Prabowo Subianto trailed a distant second with 28.57 percent, and Jusuf Kalla and Wiranto with 9.77 percent.

The KPU however said the tabulation did not necessarily reflect the official vote results, which are not expected until July 25.

“This [vote tally] is preliminary and is not official as it has to follow a certain verification procedure. This preliminary data should in no way be considered representative of the national or official results,” the KPU said in its disclaimer.

The tabulation was conducted in around 104,000 out of a total of 450,000 polling stations across the archipelago, each sending vote count results to a KPU database center in Jakarta on Wednesday.

As of Thursday afternoon, the data had come from polling stations in 28 provinces, only those from the remote provinces of Papua, West Papua, Maluku, North Maluku, and East Kalimantan have not filed the results. (dre)

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