Indonesians abroad not keen to take part in poll

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian voters living abroad have shown little interest in the legislative election, with as little as 10 percent of the more than 400,000 registered voters estimated to have exercised their rights, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Tuesday.

These registered voters made up only 23 percent of the total number of Indonesians known to live in foreign countries, Hassan said.

While, there were about 407,000 voters registered internationally, only 10 to 30 percent of them had actually participated in the election, he said.

Regarding the election result, Hassan said the latest figures showed the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party were winning the largest share of the ex-patriot vote.

"We could have the final result in only two weeks from now," Hassan said after meeting the ministry's second echelon officials.

However, data gathered by The Jakarta Post from several embassies showed the PDI-P was in a tight race with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), especially in the Middle East.

From the Indonesian Embassy in Dubai, the PKS won 180 of 680 votes, with the PDI-P in second place with 108 votes.

In ongoing counting in Riyadh, the PKS lead yesterday with 1212 votes, with the National Awakening Party (PKB) following with 357 votes and the PDI-P with 241 votes.

In Egypt, the PKS led the counting, with 1126 votes out of a total of 1761, with the PDI-P not getting any votes at all.

Indonesian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Juwono Sudarsono, said on Tuesday that so far the embassy had received 1,200 votes, with PKS leading the counting.

"But there is still another 1,000 votes that we haven't counted and it could take another two days for the final result," Juwono told the Post.

In Russia, Ambassador Susanto Pudjomartono said the PDI-P won with 29 votes, with the Democratic Party coming second.

The votes included Indonesian citizens in Moscow and St Petersburg, he said.

The PDI-P had significant wins in Singapore, with about 30 percent of the 10,000 vote total, with Golkar and the Democratic Party trailing in second and third.

In the United States, the Democratic Party won 71 votes in Washington D.C., while the PKS came second and the Christian- based Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) third.

In New York, the PDS won with 58 votes and the Democratic Party came second with 41 votes. The PKS was third with 31 votes, while the PDI-P and the National Mandate Party (PAN) had 21 votes each.