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Indonesia gets ready for parliamentary elections
By ROBIN McDOWELL,Associated Press Writer AP - Thursday, April 9
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesians head to the polls Thursday for parliamentary elections that could determine if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will have enough support to win a second five-year term and push through aggressive economic and institutional reforms.
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Winning parties, or coalitions, may select candidates for the much more important presidential race in July.
If Yudhoyono's Democrat Party garners a fifth of the seats in the 560-member legislature _ or 25 percent of the popular vote _ he will not have to form an alliance with parties less willing to tackle corruption, overhaul the judiciary and streamline bureaucracy.
"At this moment it looks like he's going to make it," said Dede Oetomo, a political analyst from Airlangga University in the city of Surabaya.
But with 37 other parties in the running and more than 170 million registered voters _ many of them undecided _ anything can happen, he and others cautioned.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country with 235 million people, has made tremendous strides since longtime dictator Suharto was ousted from power in 1998 and is often held up as a beacon of how Islam and democracy can go hand-in-hand.
When Yudhoyono became the first directly elected leader in 2004, his Democratic Party won just 7 percent of the popular vote, forcing him, eventually, to partner up with Golkar _ the largest party in parliament _ and a handful of Islamic parties that showed little interest in reform.
"This is man who doesn't want to make waves," said Wimar Witolear, a longtime political analyst, adding that if Yudhoyono is supported by people who pressure him to tackle tough political and economic issues, "then maybe the nation has a chance."
After weeks of flag-waving and colorful rallies, a brief cooling off period ahead of the vote ensured the streets were quiet Wednesday. Some officials were seen peeling campaign posters off of telephone polls and bridge tunnels.
Polls open Thursday at 7 a.m. and close at noon.
Indonesians are directly choosing their legislators, instead of voting solely for parties. More than 11,000 candidates are vying for seats in the national parliament and another 1.5 million candidates for provincial and local councils.
Many campaigns have been personality driven with policies ill-defined, focusing on issues like the effect the global slowdown has had on the economy or the need to root out pervasive corruption.
Unlike 2004, security is no longer a big issue, something many give Yudhoyono credit for.
Indonesia was last hit by an al-Qaida-linked terrorist attack four years ago and, thanks to a 2005 peace deal, guns have largely fallen silent in formerly war-torn Aceh province, on the country's northwestern tip.
One major issue being followed will be the role of Islamic parties in politics in the secular nation.
The popularity of the Prosperous Justice Party _ which surprised observers during the last elections in 2004, scooping up 7 percent of the vote _ appears to be diminishing, analysts say, partly because hard-liners have tried to push through unpopular laws regulating everything from women's dress and behavior to smoking.
"As long as these parties try to push through Islamic-based laws, they are going to keep losing support," said Syafiie Maarif, an Islamic scholar. "They need to come up with a broader, policy-based platform, like fighting poverty."
A poll released this week by the Indonesian Survey Institute predicted the Democratic Party would win 26 percent of the popular vote; the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle headed by former President Megawati Sukarnoputri 14 percent; and Golkar 13 percent. The survey, based on interviews with 2,486 people, had a margin of error of 2.3 percent.
Aside from Yudhoyono, other top contenders for the presidency are Vice President Jusuf Kalla, a senior figure in Golkar and Megawati, a former president and daughter of the country's founding father, Sukarno.
The dark horse is Prabowo Subianto, an ex-army general and former son-in-law of Suharto, is getting attention even though he lost his job as head of the Special Forces in 1998 for allegedly kidnapping student activists during years of political upheaval, something he denies.
___
Associated Press Writers Zakki Hakim, Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos contributed to this report from Jakarta.
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