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