Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono began planning his re-election campaign yesterday after his party won the most seats in general elections, unofficial results showed.
His centrist Democratic Party completed its dramatic transformation from political newcomer in 2001 to the strongest party in parliament following largely peaceful elections on Thursday, independent polling agencies said.
Projections by the respected Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) had the Democrats winning 20.48 percent of the vote, based on its own count of ballots from a representative sample of 2,100 polling stations.
PHOTO: AFP
The opposition Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of ex-president Megawati Sukarnoputri gained 14.33 percent and Suharto’s former ruling party, Golkar, was close behind with 13.95 percent.
Several other independent polling agencies came up with similar projections, which were also in line with pre-election opinion surveys.
The first official results started to be published yesterday but they were too small to be meaningful and the final count is not expected until May 9.
“At this stage the data is stable. The Democrats are the winning party with the most number of votes,” LSI director Saiful Mujani told Metro TV television station late on Thursday.
Islamic parties in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country were projected to win a total of around 26 percent of the vote, their worst showing in Indonesia’s history as people focused on worldly affairs such as growth and jobs amid the global economic crisis.
MILD MANNER
Yudhoyono is a softly-spoken ex-general with a sky-high popularity rating thanks to his mild manner, sound economic management and determination to crack down on rampant corruption.
“We will start tomorrow engaging in political communications [with other parties],” Yudhoyono told reporters at his home late on Thursday.
Carefully avoiding any claim to victory, he added: “We will see what kind of coalition we have and how many presidential candidates meet the requirements.”
Golkar General-Secretary Sumarsono said: “We’re disappointed but that’s the voters’ decision and we’ll accept the results.”
“The Democrats used the president as their figurehead. If people think the president is good they’ll choose his party,” Sumarsono said.
PDI-P central board committee chairman Arif Budimanta complained that some voters’ names had been left off ballot papers, amid shambolic preparations by electoral authorities which could leave the door open to complaints.
“People said they went to polling stations wanting to vote but they were turned away as their names weren’t there,” Budimanta said.
It was the third general election since the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998 ushered in a new era of reform, turning Indonesia into the world’s third-largest democracy after India and the US.
Yudhoyono’s campaign received a boost late last year when a timely fall in crude oil prices allowed him to reverse unpopular increases in the cost of subsidized fuel.
His party may not reach the 20 percent of seats in the 560-seat lower house or 25 percent of the popular vote required to nominate a presidential candidate on its own.
But it could nevertheless improve its strength from the 57 seats it held in the outgoing parliament and is in a strong position for coalition negotiations that will set the scene for the presidential election in July.
UNEASY
Yudhoyono had an uneasy relationship with his vice-president, Golkar Chairman Jusuf Kalla, who has hinted he will run against the incumbent in the presidential race.
Other candidates include Megawati, who was defeated by Yudhoyono in 2004, the hereditary sultan of the ancient city of Yogyakarta, Hamengkubuwono X, and Prabowo Subianto, a populist ex-general with a record of human rights abuses during the Suharto dictatorship.
Islamic parties could also become significant players if the major secular parties cannot agree to work together.
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