Indonesia president’s party leads parliamentary polls

Boosting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s reelection bid and reform effort, the unofficial results of parliamentary elections released Friday showed his Democratic Party with a strong lead.

The party received more than 20% of votes cast in Thursday’s general election, according to projections by the Indonesian Survey Institute based on a sample of results from polling stations.

Yudhoyono’s main rival, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, was locked in a close race for second with the Golkar Party of former dictator President Suharto. Both were polling about 14%.

If confirmed by the official count, the Democratic Party’s lead would qualify it to put up a candidate to run in July’s presidential election.

Yudhoyono, a former army general, is the first Indonesian president to serve a full term since 1998. Any potential candidate who fails to meet the threshold of 20% of votes can negotiate with other parties to form a coalition to reach the minimum support required to run.

As the count continued Friday, Megawati was reported to be holding coalition talks with former generals Wiranto and Prabowo, who, like many Indonesians, use only one name.

Yudhoyono told reporters Friday that he had begun discussions with other parties in an apparent effort to build a stronger position for pressing political and economic reforms if he is re-elected.

“For me, those who have goodwill in running a better government for the next five years deserve to form a coalition, from any ideologies, as long as they have a good track record,” he told reporters at his home in Bogor, south of Jakarta.

Yudhoyono confirmed that he was talking with at least one Islamic party and the Golkar party, whose chairman, Yusuf Kalla, is his vice president.

More than 170 million Indonesians were eligible to vote for members of the 560-seat national legislature, called the House of Representatives, provincial assemblies and other bodies. More than a million candidates from 38 political parties ran for seats.

Indonesian analysts say voters have become increasingly sophisticated since Suharto’s 32-year rule collapsed during Asia’s 1998 economic meltdown. They want concrete reforms.

Thursday’s general election was the third since Suharto’s regime collapsed, but the first in which votes could be cast for individual candidates instead of parties.

With so many candidates listed on the nine-page ballots, many voters were confused. Complaints of polling irregularities came from across the vast archipelago of about 17,500 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited.

“The April 9 election was definitely the most chaotic general election compared to those of 1999 and in 2004,” the English-language Jakarta Post newspaper said in an editorial titled “Thank You Voters.” “Trust in political parties and politicians is also at its lowest level since democracy was restored.”

The election was largely free of the violence that has marred previous polling. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have demanded an investigation of reports that paramilitary police shot about nine people after breaking up a pro-independence protest in the territory of Papua before the vote.

Indonesian authorities insist that the Papuans shot arrows first. Video from the scene of the unrest showed police carrying a wounded officer with an arrow stuck in his leg.

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paul.watson@latimes.com