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The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 07/07/2009 11:14 PM | Presidential Election Vice presidential hopeful Boediono will cast vote for the first time at his hometown in Sawitsari village, Sleman, Yogyakarta, on Wednesday. “I admit that I went home to comfort myself ahead of the presidential election. I will probably vote at 9.30 a.m, at the polling station Sawitsari 96,” Boediono said Tuesday as quoted by Kompas.com. He urged all residents to vote. Head of the Yogyakarta branch of the Democratic Party (PD) GPBH Prabukusumo said the provincial success team for presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and running mate Boediono would deploy 8,049 volunteers to monitor all polling stations across the province. “The volunteers will be equipped with telecommunication devices and will submit their reports online,” Prabukusumo said. He was optimistic that the candidates’ supporters would remain solid and contribute a great number of votes for SBY a

Andra Wisnu , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 07/07/2009 8:03 AM | Presidential Election Besides the troubled electoral roll, the poor election management has put the General Election Commission (KPU) under fierce fire with the increasing demand for the polling body’s seven members to step down and stand trial. The National Council for Changes and political analysts threatened Monday that they were still coordinating with political parties to file a lawsuit against the polling body as it had allegedly disrespected the voting rights of 47 million people in the April legislative elections. “The increasing report on unregistered voters from regions and the verdict of the Constitutional Court, which allows the use of identity cards for unregistered voters at home and of passports for those abroad are hard evidence that the polling body is poorly managing the election,” Yudi Latief, a political analyst of the Paramadina University and Adie Mass

Andra Wisnu , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 07/07/2009 1:37 PM | Presidential Election A blue border: A worker paints a blue border for a polling booth Tuesday at Sekolah Alam grounds in Cikeas, near the residence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Blue is the color of Yudhoyono’s party. Indonesians will elect their next president on Wednesday. JP/ J. Adiguna The General Elections Commission (KPU) and the team assigned by Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Soekarnoputri campaign teams to assist the commission with the screening of the electoral roll promised Tuesday they would finish the job by days end. Zulfikar, from the Kalla campaign team, said the KPU and the campaign teams were working hard to fix the problematic electoral roll, adding the teams were currently striking off multiple entries and the corresponding identification numbers. “That’s the hard part actually, because we’ve found dozens of identical people listed at different po

President Abdurrahman Wahid (popularly known as Gus Dur), whose term of office was supposed to run until 2004, lost his presidency when the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) revoked its mandate and appointed Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri as a new president. In a special session on July 23, 2001, ahead of the scheduled date of August 1, 2001, the Assembly revoked its mandate to Wahid on the grounds that he had exceeded his authority, particularly by issuing a decree suspending the Assembly and the House of Representatives (DPR). With the appointment of Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDIP - the party which won the 1999 election), Ind

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN Published: July 7, 2009 CAIRO — The streets of Iran have been largely silenced, but a power struggle grinds on behind the scenes, this time over the very nature of the state itself. It is a battle that transcends the immediate conflict over the presidential election, one that began 30 years ago as the Islamic Revolution established a new form of government that sought to blend theocracy and a measure of democracy. From the beginning, both have vied for an upper hand, and today both are tarnished. In postelection Iran, there is growing unease among many of the nation’s political and clerical elite that the very system of governance they rely on for power and privilege has been stripped of its religious and electoral legitimacy, creating a virtual dictatorship enforced by an emboldened security apparatus, analysts said. Among the Iranian president’s allies are those who question whether the nation needs elected institutions at all. Most telling,

By Christi Parsons and Megan K. Stack 5:34 PM PDT, July 7, 2009 Reporting from Moscow -- By an old-fashioned score card, President Obama didn't exactly rack up a decisive victory during his two-day visit with Russian leaders this week, leaving town with a few agreements on nuclear disarmament and the proceeds of several photo-ops. But as Obama ended his whirlwind series of meetings here late Tuesday, the president and his staff argued for a different scorekeeping system, one they said better suits an emerging, multipolar world. Asked whether Obama "won" during his talks with Russian leaders, a key White House aide testily dismissed the question as a "really bad" one. "I keep saying this is not 1974," said Mike McFaul, Obama's senior director for Russia and Eurasia. "It's not a zero-sum game. It's exactly what we're trying to get away from." Obama and Russian Pr

Daughter Paris Michael Katherine's remarks provide an emotional high point at the memorial. By Chris Lee 5:56 PM PDT, July 7, 2009 With all the mourning and music, celebrity performers and soaring speeches by African American leaders at Staples Center on Tuesday, it was easy to overlook a quieter spectacle taking place. Michael Jackson's memorial served as a grand unveiling for the singer's children. While their father was one of the most photographed men of the last half-century, his sons Prince Michael II, 7, and Prince Michael Jr., 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11, have remained in the shadows for most of their young lives, surfacing only in paparazzi photos and until recently, wearing fanciful masks whenever they were in public. On Tuesday, however, the children arrived before the eyes of the world without disguises. They sat in the front row throughout the memorial, flanking their grandmoth

The Australian, 08 July 2009, INDONESIA goes to the polls today to elect a president directly for only the second time in its history, and with a landmark Constitutional Court decision enabling a record number of voters. The court ruled that a voter’s identity card, which all Indonesians are required by law to carry, would be sufficient proof of their eligibility to take part in the polls. Previously, the General Election Commission had been criticised for failing to give all voters access to polling booths, through a cumbersome system requiring them to produce an “invitation” to vote delivered through the mail. On the day of parliamentary polls in April, tens of thousands of Indonesians showed up at polling booths simply to register a protest that they had not received an official invitation letter and were thus unable to cast a vote. The issue had been one that the two sets of second-string candidates in the three-horse race had been keen to seize on over recent weeks. Former p

By Sandra Hamid Sandra Hamid is The Asia Foundation’s Senior Director of Programs in Indonesia. She can be reached at sandrahamid@tafindo.org . Televised debates have been held, the campaigning has concluded, and Indonesians will vote for their president today. In the country’s more than 60 years since independence, this is only the second time that Indonesians have voted for their president. The country’s first two presidents, Sukarno and Suharto, held office for 23 and 32 years, respectively. Presidents Habibie, Abdurrachman Wahid, and Megawati Sukarnoputri followed Suharto after his downfall in 1998 and, like their predecessors, none of these presidents was elected directly by the Indonesian people. It was only in 2004, following constitutional changes, that Indonesians finally secured the right to vote for their president. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – popularly known by his initials: SBY – won that historic election, and is now running for his second and final term. If SBY succeeds

Reuters – Election officers transport ballot boxes by a wooden boat to be distributed to Barombong village in Indonesia's … By John Package John Package – 33 mins ago PUNCAK JAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Polling stations opened in Papua, the easternmost part of Indonesia , on Wednesday, the start of voting in a presidential election that will determine the pace of reform over the next five years. Opinion polls have consistently shown that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono , who Indonesians often refer to as SBY, will be re-elected, win