People Should Maintain Order During Counting Of Voters

Jakarta, July 9 (Antara) - National Police Chief General Sutarman urged the people to maintain law and order during the presidential election 2014, especially during counting of votes, so that the atmosphere remains conducive. "People who want to watch the vote counting after they have exercised their franchise are allowed to do so, but they must remain orderly as it is part of a democratic process," Sutarman stated here on Wednesday. Sutarman acknowledged that security threats tend to arise during polling, but he hoped the people will not be provoked and will maintain order. "Vulnerability tends to emerge during polling, but I think our society understands very well that this is part of a democratic process used for electing a leader for the next five years," he pointed out. "So, we do not need any conflict, and we want the presidential election to run peacefully," he added. According to Sutarman, so far, the implementation of the presidential election has been running well. In addition, the National Police has deployed about 95 personnel to provide security to respective presidential candidate pairs: Prabowo Subianto with Hatta Rajasa as his running mate and Jokowi who pairs with Jusuf Kalla. "There are 95 personnel assigned to escort each candidate, and they will continue to provide security to the two candidate pairs (Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa pair and Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla duo) until the end of polling process by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on July 26," he explained. As reported earlier, the National Police Chief had prohibited all personnel from taking a holiday until the implementation of the presidential election is completed. Police members are not allowed to take leave from work as the Police Headquarters is on alert to secure the presidential election. Police leaders have set the alert, so that the police officers guard their units from Monday morning (July 6) until the status is revoked following the implementation of the election. In this regard, police personnel must be on guard at the headquarters. If a security escalation arises, it will be easy for the police to deploy its personnel. According to the KPU, a total of 190,307,134 eligible voters have been registered for the presidential election on Wednesday, July 9, 2014, including 2,038,711 overseas voters, with 486,866 polling stations across the archipelago.