Landmark direct election peaceful
Landmark direct election peaceful
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Except for a minor incident in Bali, Monday's runoff polls
capping an eight-month election season went on relatively
smoothly.
Despite increasing security concerns after a bomb rocked
Jakarta just 11 days earlier, with over 100 million voters
directly electing their new president.
Most of the 550,000 polling stations completed the process on
time, at 1 p.m. although, voter turnout seemed to be down a bit
from the first round in July when some 80 percent turned out.
No clashes broke out, including in the politically sensitive
provinces such as East Java and Yogyakarta, where the two pairs
of candidates Megawati Soekarnoputri-Hasyim Muzadi and Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono-Jusuf Kalla, campaigned intensely.
Police quelled a protest by a dozen supporters of Megawati in
Bali expressing disappointment as she looked set to be voted out
of office, AFP reported. The protesters burned a tire on the
street of Bali's capital Denpasar before police broke them up.
In war-torn provinces such as Aceh and Papua, no clashes were
reported in an election earlier called one of the most complex in
the world.
The country is home to more than 17,000 islands covering a
distance of some 5,000 kilometers, with many of those islands
very isolated. In Papua some voters have to walk for two days to
a polling station.
On Monday, the nation was seemingly united in a festive mood
with some polling station staff dressed in their traditional
attire.
In a polling station in Bandung, West Java, election officials
wore the Cheong Sam Chinese dress. In Jakarta, officials in a
number of polling stations donned the indigenous Betawi attire.
In Bali, like in previous elections, officials held traditional
rituals and dressed in the famous Balinese outfits.
"The election proves that economic crisis has raised the
people's political consciousness. People are realizing that they
have to fight for themselves," political analyst H.S. Dillon told
The Jakarta Post.
He said that the direct election exercise had been an
excellent system and the awareness of the people to take part
should be highly received.
KPU chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin said that during his visit
to Lampung on Monday he noticed that the election went as
scheduled and there had been no major disturbance.
"We are happy to see that the election went peacefully and as
planned," he said.
Analyst Dillon reminded the upcoming president not to turn
down people's trust and he or she had to immediately engage in
efforts to boost the country's confidence.
"The upcoming president should give hope to the people within
the first 100 days. People are willing to sacrifice if they could
have a leader that they can trust," Dillon, coordinator of the
non-government organization Partnership, said.
The 1945 Constitution was amended in 2000 to make way for the
direct presidential election. In the past, the president was
elected through the People's Consultative Assembly.
The series of elections began on April 5 for the legislative
election followed by the first round of the presidential election
on July 5.
Security was tight Monday with heavy presence of fully-armed
security personnel at major roads in Denpasar, Kuta and Nusa Dua.
In the easternmost province of Papua, people began pouring
into the polling stations at around 9 a.m. Local KPU chief La
Pona said that people appeared less enthusiastic compared to the
legislative election.
In East Java, home to the country's largest Islamic
organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), voters headed to the polling
stations in an orderly manner, apparently not heeding an edict
issued for NU followers refrain from voting.
In Pekanbaru, Riau and Kendari, West Nusa Tenggara, the
election went off peacefully, but also with a relatively lower-
than-expected voter turnout.
Riau KPU chief Raja Sofyan Samad said polling stations were
not as crowded as they were during the first round.