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 president Megawati Sukarnoputri and her running mate, retired general Prabowo Subianto, along with Vice-President Jusuf Kalla and his offsider, retired general Wiranto, held bitter press conferences and meetings with election commission officials to voice concerns over the quality of the voting roll information.
The incumbent and almost certain winner in today’s vote, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, prudently held back from getting involved, although he sent his running mate, former central bank governor Boediono, to the Constitutional Court in a show of last-minute unity with the other two pairs of candidates for the decision’s announcement on Monday.
The constant concerns of electoral roll irregularities being voiced by the Mega-Pro and JK-Win teams, as they have styled themselves, were beginning to sound like sour grapes in advance of an expected defeat.
Neither team has ruled out a legal challenge to the outcome, which on almost all opinion polling puts Dr Yudhoyono far enough ahead for the result to be determined without even the need for a runoff election.
Responding to the Constitutional Court’s decision at his home in Cikeas, south of Jakarta, Dr Yudhoyono said it was “what I had been hoping for”.
“It is a smart choice and the right verdict,” he said, adding he would communicate directly with provincial governors to ensure that voting station staff understood the new requirements. The decision could see several million extra voters taking part, with only about a 70 per cent participation rate from the 171 million registered voters recorded in April. A further five million voters have been added to the list since April.
The electoral commission has blamed incomplete data from the Home Ministry for a proliferation of multiple registrations of individual voters on the rolls, as well as dead voters not struck off.
Ironically, the commission, which was required this year for the first time to apply to the national parliament for its funding, was forced to cut back on its budget significantly after opposition from key leaders including Mr Kalla.
This led to major shortcuts in how the electoral rolls were produced and cross-checked.
Assuming Dr Yudhoyono and Dr Boediono are elected – either directly today, or in a second-round runoff vote in September – the pair will still face a challenge running government over the next five years.
The President’s relatively young Democrat Party massively increased its vote in the parliamentary elections but will still only hold 148 seats in the 560-seat house.
He will need to gather support from the other parties in the parliament, which could include the once-dominant Golkar party, currently backing Dr Yudhoyono’s opponents in Mr Kalla and General Wiranto.
There is nothing preventing Golkar, which placed second with 108 seats, from allying itself once more with the Democrat Party after the elections, to gain several key ministries in a new Yudhoyono government.
However, in that scenario Dr Yudhoyono would have the upper hand in deciding who got what and, post-defeat, Mr Kalla would probably be cast into the political wilderness by his own party.
Ms Megawati’s Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle is likely to be the biggest loser, with no clear internal succession should she lose today and, despite modelling itself as the party of reform since the Suharto years, little evidence of presenting a coherent opposition. It won just 93 seats in the house.
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