Projections Put Yudhoyono Well Ahead

Millions of voters across Indonesia made their way on Wednesday to 450,000 polling stations across the country to exercise their right to vote in the country’s second only direct presidential election.

“We closed our shop today for the elections,” said one man. “It’s just for one day so we don’t mind.”

President Yudhoyono himself cast his vote near his home in Cikeas, not far from the capital Jakarta. He appealed to his fellow citizens: “I would like to call on all voters in Indonesia to exercise their right to vote. Come to the polling stations, use your right and make your choice. This is a good day for our nation and God willing it will bring blessings.”

The president surely felt blessed later on in the day when the first projections showed that he had won more than the necessary 50 percent of the vote. He also looked likely to win the required 20 percent of the vote in all 33 provinces of the country of 17,000 islands.

Kalla congratulates SBY but Megawati alleges fraud

Generally, the consensus was that the voting went well and that SBY had won outright. Just hours after the polling stations closed, his male challenger Yusuf Kalla conceded defeat and congratulated him.

But former President Megawati denounced the election as a “pseudo-democracy” and implied there had been election fraud.

The campaign had been marred by a controversy over voter lists. There had been claims the lists had been rigged with millions of duplicate names and dead people being listed as voters.

Logistical chaos

Natalia Warat from the independent US-based Asia Foundation explained that there was chaos in the run-up to the election: “One can’t start registering voters two weeks ahead of the election. This process takes time and it is the task of the KPU (National Election Commission of Indonesia) to prepare the electoral roll. The KPU has five years to prepare the election; they can’t just do everything in the last minute.”

Some voters complained they had not received their papers on time and Wahidah Suaib from the Election Supervisory Body admitted there had been some logistical problems.

”We went to the biggest hospital in Jakarta,” he explained. “Most of the patients didn’t use their vote because they didn’t get the latest information on how to vote in the hospital. We are still checking whether the process was hampered in some regions because of logistics or other factors.”

The official election results are due before the end of the month.

Many challenges ahead

After decades of dictatorship, Yudhoyono's supporters credit him with bringing political stability, peace and the best economic performance in a decade. Moreover, his anti-corruption drive has won him much praise.

But there are many challenges ahead. Corruption remains a critical problem. There are millions of poor Indonesians whose situation must be addressed. The infrastructure is in urgent need of modernisation.

Analysts expect SBY to use his second five-year term to develop the economy further and at a faster pace. They predict he will remove some of the bureaucratic obstacles and protectionist polices that have hindered foreign investment in the past.

Author: Anne Thomas
Editor: Thomas Bärthlein