Thousands Turn Out to Rally for Indonesian Opposition

Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians poured into the streets around Jakarta, the capital, on Sunday, waving flags and honking horns in support of presidential front-runner Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of founding President Sukarno.

Vehicles driven by members of the Indonesian Democratic Party in Struggle, or PDIP, choked Jakarta’s streets, bringing normally light Sunday traffic to a standstill.

It was the most impressive turnout so far for any party after five days of campaigning for the June 7 election, which will determine the makeup of a new parliament whose members are to form a special assembly that will select a president.

There was little sign of the other nine parties that were authorized to hold rallies Sunday in a rotating schedule aimed at avoiding conflict among supporters of the major groups. The ruling Golkar party is to have its first rally today.

The election will be the first since authoritarian President Suharto quit after riots and protests last May. Under Suharto, only three officially approved parties were allowed to run in elections. This time, 48 parties will take part.

On Sunday, an estimated 80,000 people crowded into a vacant field near a golf course 35 miles from downtown Jakarta where Megawati arrived in a helicopter to make her first campaign speech.

Megawati urged supporters to turn out in force on election day to get rid of a government “that is not respected by the people” and to ensure there is no cheating.

“Stay there and watch the counting because our experience in the past showed that thousands of our supporters came to vote, but when the results came, in some places, the PDIP got nothing,” she said.

Suharto’s successor and Golkar candidate President B.J. Habibie, who lags in opinion polls, says it will be the freest vote in 44 years.

Megawati came to prominence in 1996 when Suharto tried to oust her as head of her opposition party after she called for democratic reforms. Ironically, it was Megawati’s father, Sukarno, who ended the nation’s last experiment with unfettered democracy in 1955.

Sukarno later declared himself president for life before being replaced by Suharto after an attempted Communist coup in 1965.

Megawati is leading in opinion polls. But most analysts say she will not garner enough support to win a majority in the 500-seat parliament that has been dominated by the Golkar party since the early 1970s.