0 Winasa steals the show in gubernatorial race

I Gde Winasa, former regent of Jembrana and the defeated candidate in the 2008 gubernatorial election, stole the show in the ongoing gubernatorial race’s preparation process when he showed up Wednesday at the Bali General Election Commission (KPUD) office in Renon and registered himself as a candidate for the May 15 election. His move sent political pundits scrambling to assess the motive and impact of his participation in the political contest, which for months had been predicted as a head-to-head battle between incumbent governor Made Mangku Pastika and his estranged deputy governor AA Ngurah Puspayoga. 

Winasa’s maneuver has also forced political strategists in both Pastika’s and Puspayoga’s camps to return to their drawing boards and revise their projections for the election. So far, Pastika’s camp has concluded that Winasa’s presence would tilt the race in their favor. “Jembrana is considered a region controlled by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the party that endorses Puspayoga. The fact that Winasa, an influential figure who was very popular among Jembrana residents due to the populist programs he introduced during his tenure as regent there, will compete in the gubernatorial election would surely have a negative impact on the number of votes Puspayoga could amass in that regency,” a source close to Pastika’s camp said. 

Another analyst pointed out that Winasa met Pastika several weeks ago and supported the latter’s re-election bid, hinting that Winasa’s move was a clever trick devised by Pastika’s camp to weaken Puspayoga’s support base in Jembrana and the west part of Buleleng. Winasa came to the commission office on Jl. Cok Agung Tresna, Denpasar, with his running mate I Putu Sudiartana — a businessman who is also a member of the Indonesian Workers and Employers Party (PPPI), at 3 p.m., only one hour before registration closed. The pair claimed that they were endorsed by 28 minor political parties, which had collectively gained 18.72 percent of the vote during the 2009 legislative election on the island. 

Curiously, three parties claimed as Winasa’s supporters: the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the Workers Struggle Party (Partai Karya Perjuangan), and the National Functionary Concern Party (PKPB), had earlier been listed as part of the Bali Mandara Coalition, the political caucus that endorsed Mangku Pastika. Earlier in the day, the incumbent deputy governor, Anak Agung Puspayoga, and his running mate, Dewa Nyoman Sukrawan, also registered with the KPUD. The Puspayoga-Sukrawan pairing is endorsed by the biggest political party on the island, the PDI-P. Dewa Nyoman Sukrawan is currently the speaker of the Buleleng Legislative Council. 

Thousands of people escorted the pair during a brief march to the KPUD office on Wednesday morning. Dressed in traditional Balinese attire, they walked around 800 meters from the PDI-P Bali office to the KPUD office. At the office, a troupe of rodat dancers from Kampung Muslim Kepaon and Reog Ponorogo dancers welcomed the candidates. “We are ready to ensure the victory of Puspayoga and Sukrawan. Let’s give our full support to them,” the chairman of the PDI-P Bali branch, Anak Agung Ngurah Oka Ratmadi, stated in front of the supporters. The PDI-P only just announced its candidates for the gubernatorial election on Tuesday night, barely one day ahead of the KPUD’s deadline for candidate registrations. 

The announcement ended weeks of public speculation and internal battles within local PDI-P chapters. Internal sources disclosed that although the majority of the party’s local elite believed that Puspayoga was the only viable candidate for governor, they had struggled to find common ground on the ideal candidate for deputy governor. Several PDI-P members, including Klungkung regent Wayan Candra, former Tabanan regent Adi Wiryatama and newly installed Buleleng regent Putu Agus Suradnyana, were tipped to be Puspayoga’s running mate. 

Incumbent governor Made Mangku Pastika and running mate Ketut Sudikerta, who is now deputy Badung regent, registered with the KPUD last Saturday, making them the first pair to register with the commission. Mangku Pastika’s re-election bid is endorsed by nine political parties united under the Bali Mandara Coalition, comprising the Golkar Party, the Democratic Party, the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Indonesian Nation’s National Party (PNBI), the National Functionary Concern Party (PKPB), the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), the Workers Struggle Party and Gerindra. 

The chairman of the KPUD, Ketut Sukawati Lanang Perbawa, said that the KPUD would verify the validity of all written documents, including letters of support from political parties, submitted by the candidates. “The candidates have until late March to submit all the required documentation,” he said.

source : bali daily