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.
PHOTO: AP
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.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the