Surabaya Mayor Hopes for Conducive Presidential Poll

Surabaya, E Java (Antara) - Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini has expressed hope that the situation in the capital of East Java province will remain conducive when city dwellers cast their votes in the presidential election on Wednesday. "I hope it will not affect our brotherhood. We do not want this good condition to be hindered only because we have different choices," she stated after casting her ballot at the polling station at the Taman Pondok Indah housing complex here on Wednesday. Right now, the situation in the city was relatively stable, Rismaharini affirmed. "We hope that the situation in other cities will also be conducive, so that it will not affect Surabaya," she added. Rismaharini said she had been monitoring the preparations for the presidential election in the city since a few days ago. "I monitored the preparations everyday even until 2 a.m. local time. Sometimes, I did not sleep until I had a predawn meal before fasting," she remarked. The mayor noted that the election process in the recently closed Dolly red-light district also ran smoothly despite threats from the local residents to boycott the election in protest against the closure of the largest brothel in Indonesia last month. "The election process at the Dolly polling station ran smoothly. This morning we monitored the area and found no problem. Many local residents came to the polling station," Rismaharini pointed out. When asked which presidential and vice presidential ticket she supported in the election, Risma who is also a cadre of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) stated that she did not want to influence other voters in the city. "I hope that the journalists already know it. Let us wait for the results of the election," she declared. The election will be contested by two pairs: Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa and Joko Widodo (Jokowi)-Jusuf Kalla. Prabowo Subianto is a retired military general and the founder of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), while his running mate, Hatta Rajasa, is a former coordinating minister for economic affairs and the chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN). Jokowi is Jakarta's governor and a cadre of PDIP, while his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, is a former vice president and a senior politician of the Golkar Party.(*)