Early results show Indonesian president winning
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s president swept elections to win a second term, preliminary results showed Thursday, but his opponents refused to concede defeat and called the vote undemocratic.
The National Election Commission gave incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono 62 percent in its first preliminary figures, based on more than 18.7 million ballots counted after Wednesday’s vote. That would put him well beyond a 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff in September.
Former president Megawati Sukarnoputri was running second with 28 percent, and Vice President Jusuf Kalla third with 10 percent.
The commission did not give a figure for how many ballots were cast in all. There were 176 million registered voters.
The preliminary results backed findings of an independent pollster, Indonesian Survey Circle, that conducted quick counts at 2,000 polling stations nationwide after the voting and had Yudhoyono winning 60 percent of the vote.
A final result is only due by the end of July, after all the ballots are transported to the capital Jakarta from across this vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and recounted.
Yudhoyono, a 59-year old former general who became Indonesia’s first directly elected leader in 2004, ushered in a period of stability and economic growth during his first term and had been widely tipped to win re-election.
But Yudhoyono’s opponents — without providing proof — accused his Democratic Party of electoral fraud in the latest vote. They questioned the validity of the quick count polling and threatened to contest the final results, raising fears of political deadlock in this predominantly Islamic nation of 235 million.
“The implementation of the presidential elections was still far from democratic,” said Prabowo Subianto, vice presidential running mate of Megawati. Her camp claims it has found millions of fictional names on the list of eligible voters.
“There are many government institutions which were not neutral,” Subianto told reporters late Wednesday.
The National Election Commission did not respond to repeated phone calls seeking comment.
It was unclear if formal challenges to the vote had been filed, but similar complaints from the losers of the 2004 presidential election did not result in formal legal action.
Kalla, who heads the party of former dictator Suharto, Golkar, said he was “shocked” by the quick counts indicating his defeat, but remained confident that “the result is not like that.”
Yudhoyono was confident of victory.
“The (official) vote count is clearly not finished, although quick counts show the success of our struggle,” he said in televised comments from his private residence. Complaints about the results can be filed with elections officials, he noted.
Voting passed off calmly Wednesday. There were no reports of major incidents at roughly 450,000 polling stations across Indonesia including in Jakarta, where early estimates showed Yudhoyono had taken 70 percent of the vote.
“So far, I am satisfied with his work,” said Ahmad Yani, a 43-year-old hotel employee who voted for Yudhoyono after his station was opened with a Muslim prayer. “The fight against corruption is improving, I see new roads, new buildings and other infrastructure.”
Under Yudhoyono’s watch, the Corruption Eradication Commission has put a dozen lawmakers behind bars, earning it many powerful enemies in the graft-ridden police, parliament and judiciary.
“The question is whether he will be able to fight that resistance by using the support from the public and the legitimacy he had from this landslide victory,” said Sunny Tanuwidjaja, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Yudhoyono won praise on the international stage for a swift crackdown on Islamic militants after a series of suicide bombings killed 240 people from 2002 to 2005.
He has also effectively managed the economy, which is expected to expand by 4 percent in 2009 despite a global recession.
Still, Indonesia faces other huge obstacles,in attracting foreign investment to improve its crumbling infrastructure, creating an independent judiciary and reducing poverty of up to 100 million people.
Sunny believes that a reinvigorated Yudhoyono is up to the task. “We’ll see a more vibrant, more assertive president,” he said. “He wants to leave a big legacy for himself in the Indonesian history.”
Associated Press reporters Zakki Hakim, Ali Kotarumalos and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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