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Indonesian poll ends era

An election official carrries ballot boxes yesterday in Jakarta for today's presidential election. PHOTO: AP

Indonesians cast their ballots today in the country's first democratic presidential election. The vote will cap months of polls and finally consign decades of dictatorship to history.

In polls overshadowed by a recent terrorist bomb attack on Australia's embassy which killed nine people, incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri will face her former security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Yudhoyono won an initial ballot on July 5 and has consistently led opinion polls which say his polished appearance and common touch has swayed support from the taciturn Megawati in a contest as much about personality as policies.

Official campaigning has been restricted to three days, during which voters were bombarded with commercials and treated to televised discussions in which the two candidates laid out their agendas.

Until the September 9 attack, security had not been a key issue in the election, dominated by concerns about corruption and economic stagnation in a nation where almost a third of the 153 million voters are jobless or underemployed.

In opening their campaigns last Tuesday, both candidates outlined policies for tackling terrorism, with Yudhoyono promising to step up intelligence work while Megawati defended her government's security record.

The embassy blast was the third terrorist attack in two years in Indonesia following the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people were killed and a strike on the Jakarta Marriott hotel in August last year in which 12 died.

More than 40 people have been jailed for the Bali and Marriott attacks, blamed in the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional group which has also been implicated in the embassy bombing.

Observers say the recent attack is likely to boost support for former general Yudhoyono who, as Megawati's top security minister until he quit in March, headed the operation to capture and convict Bali and Marriott bombers.

Meanwhile, Megawati has engaged in a last minute publicity blitz in an effort to shake off her reticent image and is banking on support from a four-party alliance and the backing of her "little people" core voters to take her to victory.

She has considerable ground to gain after many voters deserted her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle in April legislative polls and the July first-round vote.

Megawati, credited with bringing economic stability to Indonesia in the wake of the 1997-1998 regional financial crisis, had enjoyed huge support among the country's poor, who saw her as a reform icon in dictator Suharto's last days.

In a final address on the eve of the elections, Megawati called for a peaceful vote.

"Let us show the world that we are a nation that can hold an election in a democratic, secure, orderly and peaceful manner," Megawati told some 2,000 people gathered outside her official residence for a prayer session.

Yudhoyono urged voters to back his bid, promising "effective leadership, hard-working leadership with vision and offering solutions."

"I appeal to you, I invite you, let us make this second round of the presidential election a success. Let us watch over this democracy of ours, let us hand everything to the people," he said.
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