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| Tuesday, 6 April 2004 |
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Indonesians go to the polls, old guard eye comeback JAKARTA, Indonesia, Monday (Reuters) Indonesians began voting in parliamentary elections on Monday in a congested contest expected to see the former political party of ousted strongman Suharto win the most votes, but not a majority. Polling stations opened in stages across the world's most populous Muslim nation in what is billed as the biggest and most complex one-day vote in history, and is only the second democratic election since the 1998 fall of Suharto. A win for Golkar, once the political vehicle of former leader Suharto, could badly dent incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri's chances of winning a second term during Indonesia's first direct presidential election on July 5. Monday's results will be followed by a scramble to build coalitions before that election, in which recent opinion polls show Megawati has lost the status of frontrunner. Polling booths in eastern Indonesia were the first to open, although an hour after the scheduled time. The region includes Papua, about 3,000 km (1,900 miles) east of Jakarta, where independence demands have simmered for decades. Dozens of mostly illiterate Asolokabal villagers sat in the blazing sun south of the town of Waimena in Papua and watched officials conduct voting simulations. Polls officially close at 0600 GMT on Monday. First results are not expected to be announced until 1100 GMT. But given the size of Indonesia, it may take a day or two before a significant number of votes have been counted. The vote will test the popularity of conservative Islamist parties in the wake of bomb attacks by militants linked to Osama bin Laden. So far there is little sign political disillusionment has flowed into support for Islamist politics. Megawati's Indonesia Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) won 34 percent of the last poll in 1999, the highest any party got. Golkar won 22.5 percent. Both are secular nationalist parties. Golkar has tapped a yearning for the stability and rapid economic growth of Suharto's 32-year autocratic rule. But little separates it from most of its rivals in terms of policy. Besides putting Golkar ahead of Megawati's party, recent opinion polls show her trailing for the first time in the presidential election race behind former chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.. |
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