Lineup for presidential race

Lineup for presidential race

The provisional vote tally from the April 5 legislative
election indicates that the Golkar Party will emerge as the
leading vote getter, followed by the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI-P).

The vote count shows Golkar ahead of the PDI-P by 1.5 million
votes. Compared to the 1999 elections, the number of votes
collected by Golkar on April 5 was stable, while the PDI-P's vote
tally dropped significantly.

This decline for the PDI-P was due to the poor performance of
President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government, particularly in
eliminating corruption.

Megawati's government continued to receive criticism and
eventually became helpless. This had a serious impact (on her
party, the PDI-P, in the elections). The problems of the
Megawati-Hamzah Haz government helped in Golkar's success.

Vice President Hamzah, who represented the aspirations of
Muslims, became part of the problem in Megawati's government. On
the other hand, other Islamic-based parties were also trapped in
a situation that left them unable to perform.

Thus, the 2004 elections provided voters the opportunity to
change parties, and they made use of this opportunity as
reflected in the significant change in voting trends.

PDI-P presidential candidate Megawati, who reportedly wants to
pair up, again, with Hamzah, will move forward into the
presidential race surrounded by doubt. Amien Rais is also
seemingly constrained with the poor performance of his party the
National Mandate Party (PAN).

The presidential candidate who seems to have the confidence is
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from the Democratic Party. We understand
that his nomination as a presidential candidate was due to his
popularity. Susilo's self-confidence and the success of his party
in the legislative election worries his political rivals in the
presidential race. In other words, there could be another shift
in voters' mood in the July 5 presidential election.

These changes in voting patterns also show that people are
becoming freer and freer in making their choices.
-- Republika, Jakarta