Indonesian officials rushed to count ballots yesterday in the country's first presidential election as partial results showed President Megawati Sukarnoputri likely to contest a run-off in September against a former army general.
Megawati's showing so far is stronger than opinion polls suggested before the elections Monday, and some believe she now could pose a serious challenge to front-runner Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the Sept. 20 second round between the two top vote-getters.
"Neither candidate can take the next election for granted," said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a political analyst. "Megawati faces the possibility of a coalition that goes against her simply because it wants change. Yudhoyono faces an incumbent who can make use of her office to really improve on her performance."
With just under half of the estimated vote counted yesterday, official results showed Yudhoyono leading with 34 percent ahead of Megawati on 27 percent. Another military general, Wiranto, had 22 percent.
Two other candidates shared the remainder of the votes.
Those numbers mirror that of a nationwide vote sample by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, which showed Yudhoyono with 34 percent, Megawati with 26 percent and Wiranto trailing in third place with 23 percent.
The institute, which counted half a million votes from 2,500 selected voting stations, has accurately predicted results in dozens of elections around the world. The study had a margin of error of 1.1 percent.
None of the candidates have conceded yet, and are unlikely to do so until official results are announced on July 26, especially with the battle for the crucial second place so close.
A nationwide recount of millions of ballot initially deemed invalid when voters punched two, not one, holes in them, has also added to counting delays.
The confusion could form the basis of a legal challenge by the losing parties -- an event that is likely to test Indonesia's courts, which have a reputation for corruption and bizarre rulings.
Despite the mix-up, foreign election observers pronounced Monday's balloting a success.
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who helped monitor the voting, met with Megawati afterward to pay his respects.
"We also expressed our opinion that it was an honest, fair and safe election," Carter told reporters yesterday at the State Palace.
The September run-off and possible legal challenges mean continued political uncertainty in the world's most populous Muslim nation, at least in the short term.
Indonesia has seen three presidents in six years, sectarian and separatist violence and terror attacks by Islamic militants that have claimed 214 lives, most of them foreign tourists.
Last month, Yudhoyono warned that rival supporters might clash if there was a runoff and some supporters reiterated the warning this week.
However, widespread violence -- always a threat in previous years -- is seen as unlikely.
Since Megawati became president in 2001, critics said she had abandoned her promises to help the country's impoverished majority. Instead, she remained aloof amid economic problems and pervasive corruption, they said.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS