KPU OFFICIALLY DECLARES SBY-BOEDIONO PAIR ELECTION'S WINNER

Jakarta, July 25 (ANTARA) - The General Elections Commission (KPU) officially announced here Saturday the Susilo Bambang Yudhyoyono - Boediono pair had won 73,874,562 or 60.80 percent of the votes cast in the July 8 presidential election.

The KPU in a plenary session here Saturday also announced that the Megawati Soekarnoputri - Prabowo Subianto duo had bagged 32,548,105 or 26.79 percent and the Jusuf Kalla - Wiranto ticket 15,081,814 or 12.41 percent of the votes.

The plenary session of the KPU was attended by the SBY-Boediono and the JK-Win pairs but not by the Mega-Pro (Megawati - Prabowo) presidential and vice presidential duo.

The Mega-Pro ticket was only represented by its national campaign team.

The KPU organized a direct presidential election for the 2009-2014 presidential term with presidential contestant taking part.

The three presidential and vice presidential pairs were Megawati Soekarnoputri and her running mate Prabowo Subianto (Mega-Pro), Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his pair Boediono (SBY-Boediono), and Jusuf Kalla who ran for president with Wiranto (JK-WIN).

Some 176,367,056 eligible voters including 1,133,738 Indonesians overseas were registered to vote for their presidential candidates in the country's second direct presidential election.

The KPU building has been tightly guarded since Friday in view of the official announcement of the presidential election results.

KPU member Andi Nurpati said here on Friday that her side was in coordination with the police, presidential guards and protocol officials to guard the KPU building.

"We have coordination with them in order to guarantee security during the announcement of the election results tomorrow," she said after a coordination meeting.

On Thursday, July 23, 2009, KPU accomplished the recapitulation of the 2009 presidential and vice presidential election vote counts.

The recapitulation showed that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won 60.80 percent of the vote, while rival Megawati Sukarnoputri took
26.79 percent. Jusuf Kalla bagged just 12.41 percent.