Journalists bet on Gus Dur win

JAKARTA (JP): Who says that journalists are objective?

They were not when it came to the winner of the presidential race on Wednesday at the People's Consultative Assembly.

Hundreds of journalists patiently waiting outside the Assembly's plenary hall as 691 members voted. But it all changed when officials of the Assembly secretariat general started reading the votes one by one.

Reporters tallied the votes for either Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur, and Megawati Soekarnoputri to determine who was out in front.

"I didn't choose either one of them. But I bet Rp 50,000 (US$7) on Gus Dur after I interviewed political analysts who said his chances looked better than Mega's," said Tris Wijayanto, a reporter from privately run TV station SCTV. (emf)