The officialcount result of Banten gubernatorial election is 99.75 percent done by this morning and the race could not be any tighter.
Banten only has two pair of candidates running for office this year, Wahidin Halim and running mate Andika Hazrumy and Rano Karno and running mate Embay Mulya Syarief.
By Saturday morning, Wahidin-Andika received 50.94 percent of votes, and Rano-Embay received 49.06 percent of votes, with only 88,410 votes margin.
The counting only has 42 polling stations left to count, before the winner can be officially announced.
Banten gubernatorial election has gained a lot of attention for the candidates running for office.
Wahidin is a former Tangerang mayor in 2003-2013 and is now a member of the House of Representatives. He was known for speaking out against the political dynasty in Banten, making people surprised when he chose Andika as his running mate in this years election. Andika is the son of disgraced Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah who is now in jail for a corruption case.
Ratu Atuts family is known to take part in Banten political dynasty since almost all members of her big family rule the province, including her stepbrother Serang Mayor Tubagus Haerin Jaman and her sister in law South Tangerang Mayor Airin Rachmi Diany.
Ratu Atut was dismissed from her position in 2015 and his deputy Rano Karno stepped in.
Rano is now running for the position with Embay Mulya Syarief as running mate who took part in establishing Banten as a province in 1999.
Seeing the close result, it is not impossible for both candidates to claim victory and end up in an election dispute case in Constitutional Court.
(brl/red)
