Polling day arrives after violent campaign<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Outbreaks of violence across the country since
\nmid last year are the backdrop for today's general election, the
\nseventh since independence in 1945.<\/p>\n
Reeling from the worst violence of the 27-day campaign which
\nended last Friday, locals in riot-stricken towns such as
\nBanjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Pasuruan in East Java will
\nflock this morning to some of the country's 305,219 polling
\nstations.<\/p>\n
Among the 124,740,987 registered voters are about 20 million
\nyoung people who will cast their ballots for the first time,
\nwhile 1,781,614 people vote at embassies overseas.<\/p>\n
Polling stations will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Three and
\na half million people, mostly civil servants, will help run the
\npoll to ensure that preliminary results will be available within
\n24 hours. But a final result will not be declared until June 17,
\nwith results trickling in from across this archipelago of more
\nthan 17,500 islands stretching 5,000 kilometers along the
\nequator.<\/p>\n
The election will decide who will occupy seats in the House of
\nRepresentatives, provincial legislative councils and regency or
\nmayoralty councils.<\/p>\n
Four hundred and twenty-five of the 500 seats in the House of
\nRepresentatives will be contested. The other 75 seats are
\nreserved for the Armed Forces, whose members do not vote.<\/p>\n
Voters will not directly elect candidates when they vote for
\nthe parties, which will allocate seats won among their
\ncandidates.<\/p>\n
Under a proportional representation system, the 425 seats in
\nthe House are divided among the 27 provinces. West Java, the
\nprovince with the most voters, is represented by 68 seats. East
\nJava has the second highest representation with 64 seats and
\nCentral Java has 59 seats. The vast province of Irian Jaya has 10
\nseats because of its sparse population.<\/p>\n
Golkar now holds 282 seats in the House. The Moslem-based
\nUnited Development Party (PPP) holds 62 seats and the Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party (PDI), an alliance of nationalist and Christian
\nparties, holds 56 seats.<\/p>\n
Jakarta, where the contest is expected to be fierce, is
\nrepresented by 18 seats in the House. At the last election in
\n1992, Golkar won eight of Jakarta's 14 available seats, while the
\nPPP and PDI won three seats each.<\/p>\n
Golkar is assured a comfortable victory in this year's
\nelection, but analysts will carefully study the results of the
\nPPP, which is believed to be enjoying spill-over of support from
\nthe split-ridden PDI.<\/p>\n
Golkar is aiming to win 70.02 percent of the vote for the
\nHouse this year. The PPP is hoping for a significant increase on
\nthe 17 percent that it won in 1992, while Soerjadi, the
\ngovernment-backed PDI chairman, said he would be happy with his
\nparty picking up its rivals' leftovers.<\/p>\n
The PPP is hoping for a strong showing in its traditional
\nareas of support in Central, East and West Java and in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Analysts will also study the size of the Golput (White Group)
\noutcome of people spoiling their ballots or abstaining from
\nvoting as a form of protest.<\/p>\n
Premature<\/p>\n
Golkar has repeatedly been accused of premature
\nelectioneering, with some saying the party started campaigning in
\n1993 under the leadership of Minister of Information Harmoko.<\/p>\n
Burdened with the expectation that he could increase Golkar's
\nvote, which fell to 68 percent in 1992 from 73 percent in 1987,
\nHarmoko pledged that no day would pass without him trying to
\nmobilize support. He traipsed thousands of kilometers across the
\ncountry each year to garner more support.<\/p>\n
The PPP has been through a metamorphosis in recent few years.
\nLed by the quiet, bespectacled Ismail Hasan Metareum, whose "cool
\nparty leadership" principle, has often been interpreted as
\nmeekness, the PPP became more daring as the election approached.
\nIsmail became increasingly outspoken and critical of Golkar and
\nthe government.<\/p>\n
Some analysts said this was an on-target political maneuver
\nbecause the PPP could no longer use Islamic issues to lure Moslem
\nvoters, who are the majority, because Golkar and the PDI were
\nalso working hard to appear Islamic.<\/p>\n
Whether Ismail's newly found outspokenness was the reason, the
\nPPP strongly challenged Golkar during campaigning.<\/p>\n
Some analysts attributed the PPP's extra strength to an influx
\nof support from people loyal to the ousted PDI chief, Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri. They created a new force symbolized by the phrase
\nMega-bintang; Mega is a nickname for Megawati and bintang (star)
\nis the PPP's symbol.<\/p>\n
The unlikely political alliance grew so much in the final days
\nof the campaign that it even seemed to threaten Golkar.<\/p>\n
The government lashed back by banning all expressions of the
\nalliance, which was further undermined when Megawati announced on
\nMay 22, a day before campaigning ended, that she would not vote.<\/p>\n
Analysts believe that this declaration will be imitated by
\nmany of her loyalists and push up the number of nonvoters.<\/p>\n
Violent<\/p>\n
This year's campaign will be remembered for its violence. Some
\nanalysts have called it the most violent campaign in the
\ncountry's history, with the worst incident in Banjarmasin killing
\n123 people. More trouble is feared if the PPP says that it has
\nbeen cheated during voting or ballot counting.<\/p>\n
Political analysts blamed the violence on political rivalry,
\nyouthful exuberance and dissatisfaction and frustration with the
\ngovernment and system during an outpouring of political passion
\nallowed only once every five years.<\/p>\n
"This year's election campaign is the most violent in the
\nhistory of the New Order government," an analyst said.<\/p>\n
"When campaigning begins, party supporters can only see it as
\na place to break free, violate all the rules and take revenge...
\nElections are no longer seen as a chance to choose peoples'
\nrepresentatives, because nothing has ever changed following an
\nelection," said Loekman Soetrisno, a professor of sociology at
\nGadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
Loekman warned that the situation could be the beginning of
\ncivil unrest. "It's still embryonic, but the government must pay
\nclose attention to it," he said. (swe)<\/p>",
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