Opposition parties take early lead

JAKARTA (JP): Approximately 100 million Indonesians went on Monday to the milestone polls which proceeded mainly peacefully, with Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) snatching an early lead.

In many parts of the country balloting -- managed by inexperienced and sometimes impromptu poll officials -- and vote counting proceeded at a painfully slow pace. By midnight Monday only a small percentage of the votes had reached the tabulation processing computers of the General Elections Commission.

As of 00:15 a.m. western Indonesian time, total votes counted for House of Representatives were 24,735. PDI Perjuangan led with 18,141 votes, followed by distant second runner National Awakening Party (7,117), Golkar Party (5,820), United Development Party (3,668) and National Mandate Party with 1,014 votes.

The Indonesians voted for representatives at three levels: the House of Representatives (DPR), the provincial assemblies (DPRD I) and regency assemblies (DPRD II).

People were to choose 462 legislators from at least 10,500 candidates from 48 political parties to represent them at the 500-member House of Representatives. The remaining 38 seats have been allocated to the military whose members do no vote.

Relatively minor incidents took place in Tangerang, West Java, where dozens of people set a polling booth and ballot box ablaze. Election officials said would-be voters got angry when they were prevented from voting because they had not registered.

In Surabaya, East Java, seven students were injured when troops charged a group of protesters demanding a fair election.

Witnesses said about 120 students from local universities were marching to the local election commission office when troops attacked them with batons, kicked them and chased them away on motorcycles.

"Seven students were injured, while the rest ran away (to a university)," one told Reuters.

In many other parts of the country, glitches were reported mostly from the unavailability of materials, mistakes in procedures, and also invalid ballot sheets because of pre-punched holes. In some cases, voting was either delayed or would have to be repeated.

In East Java, for instance, voting will have to be repeated in two regencies of Ponorogo and Madiun because 300 voters there were made to sign their ballot sheets by poll officials.

The same incident took place in Tanjung Priok district in North Jakarta where 30 voters were found to have written their names on ballot sheets. General Elections Commission chairman Rudini then ordered poll officials to repeat the entire balloting process.

The poll ran mostly safe in Maluku province where hundreds have died and from where tens of thousands have fled following communal clashes since January.

However, the election in a number of villages in Maluku province had to be delayed and will take place on a later date, according to Lutfi Sanaki, head of the provincial election committee. As of Monday ballot papers had yet to arrive in the districts of East Seram, and South Buru in Central Maluku regency. Lutfi blamed the delay on difficulties in transportation to the remote villages.

In Purwokerto, Central Java, as of 8 p.m. many polling stations had not completed tallying, which residents blamed on the slow work of committee members. Witnesses also looked passive and did not remind voters to check their ballot papers for any possible faults.

In Banyumas, also Central Java, committee officials scrambled for more ballot papers when 1,380 voters who worked outside the regency came in 35 buses from Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung and cities in Sumatra. Voters are allowed to vote wherever they are living but many like to vote in their hometowns. Not all polling stations could accommodate them.

In Jayapura, Irian Jaya, the spokesman of the provincial election committee FX Suryanto said as of 10 p.m., results of tallying had not come in from any of the 13 regencies including Jayapura itself.

From Yogyakarta poll watchers grouped in the Gadjah Mada University (KPP UGM) reported attempts to buy votes from a number of political parties, known by the local phrase "dawn attack" after typical attempts in the early morning hours.

For instance in the Pengasih village in Kulon Progo regency, people were given Rp 20,000 each or 2 kilograms of rice to make them vote for the Golkar Party. In other places targets were either women or elderly people.

In Padang, West Sumatra, inferior ink and lack of ballot papers was among complaints across the regions. In the Sungai Beremas subdistrict, Bungus district, there were only 64 ballot papers for to 814 voters. The poll was delayed to 3 p.m.

At the M. Djamil hospital, visiting patients' relatives could not vote although they had registered as there were only enough ballot papers for patients.

During ballot counting, PAN led votes in a number of polling places, followed by Golkar and PDI Perjuangan.

In Palu, Central Sulawesi, residents in Donggala regency demanded that village head Ibrahim Yabi of Bangga village step down because of various allegations of abuse of power. To enable a smooth poll the village secretary was appointed caretaker. Residents until Sunday night were reluctant in building polling places and only joined in last minute preparations following the above decision by the Dolo district head.

Golkar and PDI Perjuangan were close contenders in West Nusa Tenggara apart from PPP.

From Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, it was reported the poll continued in one polling place in Tamaumaung subdistrict while there were no ballot papers for the regional legislative body.

There were also polling places in Jeneponto and Pangkep regencies where tallying continued despite many ballot papers lacking stamps. In the Libureng district, poll security guards chased observers away with machetes, charging them with leaning toward a certain party.

In the Medan Area district in Medan, North Sumatra, mostly Chinese Indonesian residents found their ballot papers had been given names and numbers. People protested but the poll continued. Secretary-General of North Sumatra's Independent Election Monitoring Committee Effendi Panjaitan said this posed fears among Chinese Indonesians here and could lead to manipulation of votes.

In Boyolali, Central Java, almost all of 106 settlers from the Kedungombo Dam project came to vote.

"We have agreed to vote in the hopes that new leaders can solve our 11-year-old problem," a resident, Darsono, said in the Kedungpring hamlet in the Kedungrejo village, Kemusu district.

In Central Java town of Surakarta, residents of Karanganyar reported circulars threatening unrest if Golkar lost. (team)