Mayor of Surabaya Awaits Mandate to Run for Second Term

Surabaya, E Java (Antara) -- Mayor of Surabaya Tri Rismaharini is awaiting a mandate to run for a second term of office this year. \"I am still waiting for a mandate,\" she told journalists who inquired about her preparedness for the 2015 mayoral election in Surabaya. However, Rismaharini, who was the first woman to become a mayor of the city, refused to divulge whether she would run for the position. She said she was not very ambitious about the post, arguing that the public would decide who the next mayor of Surabaya would be. \"Believe it or not, I will not ask for the post. Everything depends on the public,\" she noted, adding that being a mayor had not been as easy as she had imagined it would be. \"My friends are not aware of how I feel. The ordeal is too heavy; it is not merely physically taxing,\" the former chief of the Surabaya city development planning board pointed out. But God willing, everything will be alright, she remarked. \"If I don\'t ask for it (the post) but still get it, it is God who helped me,\" Rismaharini said. When questioned about whether the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) had asked her to run for another term of office as the mayor of Surabaya, she refused to comment and told journalists to ask other questions. \"I had figured questions would surround this subject. Ask other questions,\" she stated. (*) Reported by Abdul Hakim