‘Goodbye to Megawati’

JAKARTA – Indonesian voters in yesterday’s first direct presidential election looked set to throw out Megawati Sukarnoputri in favour of a former general with a clean image.

As the polls closed in the young democracy, the big question was whether former chief security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,would get more than 50 percent of the vote and avoid a run-off on September 20. Opinion polls ahead of election day showed Yudhoyono with a 20-30 percent lead over his four rivals, including Megawati, in the race to lead the world’s most populous Muslim nation, a front-line state in the war on terror.”I have confidence that if there is nothing extraordinary, I can head for the second round,” Yudhoyono said as he walked to a polling booth near his home in Bogor, 30 km south of Jakarta.Opinion polls showed a close battle for second place between Megawati, former military chief Wiranto and moderate Muslim leader Amien Rais, with a fifth of the electorate undecided.Megawati, who has a reputation for being silent and aloof, declined to speak to reporters when she voted.The daughter of Indonesia’s founding president, Sukarno, proved unable to jump-start a sluggish economy and clean up rampant corruption during three years in power which have seen a wave of militant Muslim bomb attacks and separatist violence.In the old-money Jakarta precinct of Menteng, a frail-looking Suharto, the autocrat who ruled for 32 years before stepping down amid student-led demonstrations in 1998, cast his vote early.”This is a wonderful transition from authoritarian rule to purely democratic rule in just six years and the people of Indonesia are to be congratulated,” said former US president Jimmy Carter, one of hundreds of international poll monitors.The 585 000 polling stations had officially closed by 6h00, with unofficial reports putting turnout at more than 80 percent of the over 153 million registered voters.Final results will not be announced until July 26, but private counts considered reliable were expected late yesterday.Previously, a legislative body chose leaders in this nation of 17 000 islands and 220 million people, about 85 percent of them Muslim.- Nampa-ReutersOpinion polls ahead of election day showed Yudhoyono with a 20-30 percent lead over his four rivals, including Megawati, in the race to lead the world’s most populous Muslim nation, a front-line state in the war on terror.”I have confidence that if there is nothing extraordinary, I can head for the second round,” Yudhoyono said as he walked to a polling booth near his home in Bogor, 30 km south of Jakarta.Opinion polls showed a close battle for second place between Megawati, former military chief Wiranto and moderate Muslim leader Amien Rais, with a fifth of the electorate undecided.Megawati, who has a reputation for being silent and aloof, declined to speak to reporters when she voted.The daughter of Indonesia’s founding president, Sukarno, proved unable to jump-start a sluggish economy and clean up rampant corruption during three years in power which have seen a wave of militant Muslim bomb attacks and separatist violence.In the old-money Jakarta precinct of Menteng, a frail-looking Suharto, the autocrat who ruled for 32 years before stepping down amid student-led demonstrations in 1998, cast his vote early.”This is a wonderful transition from authoritarian rule to purely democratic rule in just six years and the people of Indonesia are to be congratulated,” said former US president Jimmy Carter, one of hundreds of international poll monitors.The 585 000 polling stations had officially closed by 6h00, with unofficial reports putting turnout at more than 80 percent of the over 153 million registered voters.Final results will not be announced until July 26, but private counts considered reliable were expected late yesterday.Previously, a legislative body chose leaders in this nation of 17 000 islands and 220 million people, about 85 percent of them Muslim.- Nampa-Reuters