VP ASKS NU COMMUNITY IN E JAVA TO REMAIN SOLID

Kediri, Jan 23 (ANTARA) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has asked the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) community in East Java to remain solid after the repeat gubernatorial election in Madura island.
"The situation in the NU community in East Java was rather tense during the poll but, thank God, the winner is from NU , and therefore we ask the NU community to remain solid," the vice president said during a visit to Lirboyo Islamic boarding school here on Friday.
Kalla praised the NU in East Java for being able to enter two tickets into the tightly contested gubernatorial poll.
"In democracy, we may compete with each other in elections, but after the polls are over, we have to reunite," the vice president said at a meeting with Muslim scholars in the school's Al Muktamar hall.
Kalla said whoever had emerged as the winner of the East Java gubernatorial election should be supported because the regional election was part of democracy.
"Our main objective is the unity and integrity of the nation. Therefore, we have to support whoever had won the election," Kalla said, adding that he was also an NU member.
The vice president also visited the Lirboyo school's hospital and symbolically presented 25 beds to the hospital which were received by the school's principal , KH Achmad Idris Marzuqi.
Kalla's visit to the Lirboyo school was his second after the one he made in 2001 with then Vice President Hamzah Haz.