A quick count shortly after the polling stations closed at13:00 the same day (Hanoi time) showed that the Muslim candidate received 56-57percent of votes while his Christian competitor got 41-43 percent.
Earlier the same day, about 7.2 million voters registered tocast their ballots to select Jakarta’s governor.
The first round of the election took place in February withPurnama’s victory, but the difference between votes of support the twocandidates received was too small.
Indonesian authorities mobilised over 60,000 security personnelto protect the election after a protest against Purnama last year turned into ariot.
The election of Jakarta’s governor is of significantimportance as politicians held that this is a crucial step for the winner to jointhe presidential election in 2019.
As scheduled, Indonesia’s national election committee willannounce the official election result in early May.-VNA
VNA