Polls give Yudhoyono massive lead
INDONESIA: Exit polls gave Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono an unassailable lead Wednesday as voting closed in only the
second direct presidential election since the fall of the Suharto
dictatorship.
A poll broadcast by MetroTV gave the liberal ex-general 50.48 percent
of the vote, compared to 19.48 percent for opposition leader Megawati
Sukarnoputri and 15.19 percent for outgoing Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Another "quick count" poll broadcast by TV One gave Yudhoyono 53.87
percent of the vote, with Kalla on 25.79 and Megawati third on 20.74.
Final official results are not expected for several days but based on
the unofficial figures Yudhoyono will be hoping to avoid a second-round
run-off in September.
He needs more than 50 percent of the vote and 20 percent in all 33
provinces to win in the first round.
Some 170 million people were eligible to vote in the world's largest
Muslim-majority country, from eastern Papua province to Sumatra island
in the west - spanning three time zones and 17,000 islands.
Yudhoyono has promised to boost growth through reforms to the
corruption-riddled bureaucracy, but has been attacked as a "neo-liberal"
by his rivals who championed populist policies of "self-reliance." The
mild-mannered 59-year-old - who likes to write love songs in his spare
time - is the most popular Indonesian leader in the democratic era
despite a reputation for indecisiveness.
His centrist Democratic Party almost tripled its vote in April
general elections to become the largest in parliament, allowing him to
pack his new cabinet with hand-picked technocrats instead of political
appointments.
If re-elected, he will be the first president to serve consecutive
terms at the helm of the world's third-biggest democracy behind India
and the United States, after its violent birth at the end of 32 years of
dictatorship in 1998.
From bloody street unrest and economic chaos in the late 1990s,
Indonesia has transformed itself into the best performing economy in
Southeast Asia and an example of democratic stability in a region
scarred by political turmoil.
Yudhoyono's popularity is based on five years of steady economic
growth, slow but even-handed reform of the bureaucracy and security
forces, and a tough anti-corruption drive which has netted several
senior officials.
He has weathered the global financial meltdown, with strong domestic
demand underpinning growth at around four percent this year, the highest
in the region and third only to China and India among the G20 countries.
There were no reports of violence disrupting voting, despite communal
tensions in several provinces and pre-election complaints from Megawati
and Kalla over incomplete voter lists and missing polling booths.
JAKARTA, AFP
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