Aburizal Congratulates Megawati over Quick Count Results

Jakarta (Antara) - Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie congratulated Megawati Soekarnoputry over the results of quick vote counts that put her Indonesia Democratic Party Struggle (PDIP) as the winner of the legislative elections on Wednesday. "Although about 70 percent of the votes had been counted, it can be seen that the PDIP will finish first followed by Golkar in the second place. (In view of that) I wish to congratulate the PDIP over the results of quick counts by various pollsters," Ical, as Aburizal was popularly called, said at the Golkar Party Elections Victory Coordination Office. Ical made the statement in the company of Golkar's advisory board deputy chairman Luhut Binsar Panjaitan after monitoring four quick vote counts. He reminded the PDIP to not to celebrate as the count had not yet reached 100 percent and it was not the official count of the elections organizer. Based on the quick vote count of the Lingkaran Survey Indonesia (LSI), the PDIP finished first garnering 19 percent of national votes, followed by Golkar in the second place with 14.7 percent and Gerindra in the third place with 11.3 percent. Like LSI, the Saiful Munjani Research Center also ranked the PDIP first with 19.23 percent of the votes in the elections, Golkar second with 14.81 percent and Gerindra third with 11.93 percent, although only 79.23 percent of the votes had been counted. Ical predicted the figures will not be very different from the official count to be declared later, but he still was optimistic that his party could overtake the PDIP. "Optimism over Golkar's victory will always remain," he said. He said the results of vote collection that had put the PDIP and the Golkar on the top of the list were the results of hard work by the two parties in winning the people's hearts. "I think the votes reflected the Indonesian people. Although the Golkar did not meet its target of winning 23 percent of votes, I think the party will accept the official results of the vote count by the KPU (general elections commission) to be announced later," he added. (*) Reporting by Indra Arief Pribadi