Overseas voters direct votes to PDI Perjuangan
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) came out tops in votes cast by expatriate Indonesians in several cities abroad.
Thousands of Indonesians living in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia's other major cities, as well as Manila, Singapore, Tokyo and Berlin voted for the opposition party, which is led by Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Ruling Golkar salvaged some pride with the lion's share of the vote in Cairo and Dakar, Senegal, but the Crescent Star Party (PBB) was the favored pick in Jordan.
In Manila and the second largest Philippine city of Davao, PDI Perjuangan collected 508 of 947 valid votes to end Golkar's past winning streak. The ruling party was a distant second this time around with 171 votes, followed by the National Mandate Party (PAN) with 136.
Rumors circulated among Indonesians, mostly students, in the country that Indonesian Ambassador to the Philippines Abu Hartono persuaded his staff to vote for Golkar, Indonesian student Fritz Pangemanan told The Jakarta Post. Abu denied the allegation, saying he instead pushed for democracy in the wake of the reform movement underway on home soil.
From Kuala Lumpur, Antara reported that PDI Perjuangan dominated the polls in the Malaysian capital, Johor Baru and Penang. Until the tallying of the vote concluded at 11 a.m. local time, Megawati's party received 8,250 votes, followed by Golkar with 4,885 and the National Awakening Party (PKB) with 4,080.
Vote counting in other polling stations across Malaysia is still under way, but low voter turnout was widely expected to occur due to technical problems. Many Indonesians were not allowed to take a day off from work or lived far from designated polling stations.
Only 17,000 of the 230,000 eligible Indonesian voters living in Kuala Lumpur cast their ballots on Monday.
Underperformance also was recorded in Singapore as only 22,870 of about 33,000 Indonesians there went to the polls. Job commitments and confusion over the various parties contesting the polls were considered reasons for the no-shows.
"The quantity of parties contesting the elections has confused us a lot. Imagine, there are at least three parties of the same symbol," said migrant worker Sunarti, a native of Blitar, East Java.
Sunarti said in past elections she received an invitation to vote from the Indonesian Embassy. From this year on, however, the government has appealed to citizens to take the initiative in registering for the polls.
PDI Perjuangan registered a landslide win in Singapore with 12,649 votes, leaving Golkar far behind in second with 3,391. The Unity in Diversity Party (PBI) was third with 1,192, beating PAN by a 30-vote margin.
From Tokyo, Antara reported that PDI Perjuangan took a commanding lead in the vote tally with 244 votes, ahead of PAN which garnered 222. Golkar trailed in third with 91.
The polling committee in Tokyo expects to receive 5,000 votes sent by mail from across Japan.
A minor furor occurred on Monday when Dewi Sukarno, a widow of the late founding president Sukarno, was not allowed to vote when she showed up at a polling station in Tokyo.
Election committee members rejected Dewi, who was wearing PDI Perjuangan attributes, because she was not on the voter list.
Japanese-born Dewi, who was accompanied by several local TV crews, then asked to be allowed to pretend to cast a ballot while the cameras rolled. Her request was denied. (amd)