TEMPO.CO, Makassar - Makassar Mayor candidate Munafri Arifuddin was surprised to know that the votes he garnered at a local polling station had lost to the votes obtained by the empty ballot box during the simultaneous regional head election (Pilkada).

According to polling officials, the Munafri Arifuddin-Andi Rachmatika Dewi ticket managed to acquire 43 votes while 91 voters preferred the empty ballot box.

“Why can there be so many [votes] for the empty ballot box,” said Munafri to Tempo on Wednesday, June 27. Munafri admitted that he was perplexed by the results of this particular polling station located in the vicinity of his house.

However, he claimed that the factor behind his loss was that the location of the polling station was rather hidden, added with the fact that it was located in the middle of an office area. “I am personally still perplexed by the result, the polling station was not crowded, we will have to check it again,” said Munafri.

According to Nataniel, head of the KPPS 003 polling station where Munafri cast his vote, there were 139 total votes from his polling station. As many as 134 votes were considered legitimate and 5 were not, while 236 official registered voters cast their votes there.

The Munafri Arifuddin - Andi Rachmatika Dewi ticket is backed by ten political parties in Makassar’s 2018 Pilkada that consist of NasDem, Golkar, PAN, Hanura, PPP, PDI-P, Gerindra, PKS, PKPI, dan PBB.

Didit Hariyadi

