President's party wins Indonesia vote

INDONESIA: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's party won most seats Thursday in elections seen as a key test for the country's youthful democracy, according to a leading polling institute.

Projections by the independent Indonesian Survey Institute have the centrist Democrats winning 20.4 percent of the votes, based on a near-complete unofficial count of ballots from 2,100 polling stations.

The opposition Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of ex-president Megawati Sukarnoputri gained 14.6 percent and Suharto's former ruling party, Golkar, was close behind with 14 percent.

"At this stage the data is stable. The Democrats are the winning party with the most number of votes," institute director Saiful Mujani told Metro TV television station.

Islamic parties were projected to win a total of just 25.7 percent, their worst showing in the country's history as people focused on practical concerns like growth and jobs amid the global economic crisis.

It was the third general election since the fall of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998 ushered in a new era of reform, turning Indonesia into the world's third-largest democracy, after India and the United States. JAKARTA, Friday, AFP