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.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
NASA on Thursday said that the long-delayed launch of Artemis 2, the first crewed flyby mission to the moon in more than 50 years, could come as soon as April 1. “We are on track for a launch as early as April 1, and we are working toward that date,” Lori Glaze, a senior NASA official, told a news conference, after technical difficulties delayed a launch originally expected last month. “It’s a test flight, and it is not without risk, but our team and our hardware are ready,” she said. “Just keep in mind we still have work” to do. The US space
RSS