Voters handed former General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono a landslide victory in Indonesia's first direct presidential election after he pledged to fight terror and fix the battered economy, according to official results announced yesterday.
The US-educated candidate will be inaugurated on Oct. 20. Markets and foreign governments will be anxious to see how he intends to fix the problems facing the world's most populous Muslim nation.
PHOTO: AFP
The official results of the Sept. 20 election showed Yudhoyono with 60.62 percent of the vote, ahead of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's 39.38 percent. A total of 115 million people voted.
Yudhoyono was to deliver a formal acceptance speech later yesterday. But earlier in the day, he already began speaking like the new leader.
"I will arrange the makeup of the next government and a program for the first 100 days, and then will explain to the people what the government is truly working for," he told reporters.
A running tally of votes had shown Yudhoyono with an insurmountable lead in the election for more than a week, but he had declined to claim victory and Megawati had refused to concede ahead of the official announcement.
The election was the first in which Indonesia's 210 million people were able to vote directly for their president. The poll was praised as a key step in the coun-try's transition to democracy after the downfall of ex-dictator Suharto in 1998.
Voters hungry for change were impressed by Yudhoyono's grasp of the issues facing the country and his honest image.
Yudhoyono attended officer training college in the US and is popular in Washington because he is seen as a better partner in the war on terror than Megawati was.
Yudhoyono's party holds only 10 percent of the seats in the country's parliament, and some analysts have predicted legislators might block new legislation. Yudhoyono has played down those concerns, and his aides have said the size of his victory gives him a mandate to push through reforms.
Yudhoyono will be Indonesia's sixth president, and the fourth since Suharto's downfall amid nationwide riots and pro-democracy protests.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number