Nethy Dharma Somba in Jayapura
The Democratic Party garnered the most votes for the House of Representatives in Papua with a total of 700,150 votes out of 2,949,189 valid votes.
As a result, the Dems gained two seats at the House of Representatives out of the 10 Papua-assigned seats, which is one less than the 2009-2014 period.
“The Democratic Party has always been solid and will always be solid. So even though there is wobbly internal dynamics, it still garners the most votes,” said an executive from the party’s provincial executive board, Carolus Bolly. “With such a high number of votes, Papuans still trust the party to fight for people’s welfare.” He added that the Papua chapter was still solid under the leadership of Lukas Enembe who is also the governor of Papua.
Meanwhile, a member of the Papua General Elections Commission (KPUD), Tarwinto, told The Jakarta Post that votes were evenly distributed among the 12 political parties and that eight won seats at to the House.
“In the previous period, only three parties secured seats at the House, the Dems, the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle [PDI-P],” he said.
Just like Democratic Party, the PDI-P managed to secure two seats at the House while Golkar, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Justice Prosperous Party PKS), the NasDem Party and the Gerindra Party each won one seat each.
Meanwhile, candidates who secured seats at the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) representing Papua were Charles Simaremare, Mesakh Mirin, Yane Murib and Edison Lambe.
During the last period there were only two councilors representing Papua at DPD.
Source: The Jakarta Post
Pacific Media Centre
