252 Indonesians to vote in Darwin

DARWIN (JP): Two hundred and fifty two of the 405 Indonesians living in Australia's Northern Territory are expected to vote in the May 29 poll.

Widodo Surono, Indonesian consul general here, said yesterday his office had to either post election registration forms to would-be voters or call them directly.

"We provided stamps to make it easier, but not all Indonesians responded. Most of them are blue collar workers who have to work," he said.

Wisnu Mahendra Kusuma, the local General Elections Institute official, said those who were unable to vote at the consulate's polling station could send their votes by mail.

"We'll wait for ten days after election day for their ballots," Wisnu said.

Some 900 Indonesians, mostly natives of East Nusa Tenggara province, live in the Northern Territory. More than half have changed nationality.

Indonesians living in other parts of Australia, especially in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth, are mostly students.

In the 1992 general election, there were only 195 voters in the Northern territory, and 95 percent voted Golkar.

Of the 107,565,679 voters in the 1992 polls, 512,138 voted abroad.

Widodo said the consulate had yet to see whether it would need to implement special security measures for the general election given previous anti-Indonesian protests from those opposed to the integration of East Timor into Indonesia in 1976.

"The (anti-Indonesia) movement has not staged any demonstrations since November," he said. (yan)