Tallying the votes

Tallying the votes

With more than 80 percent of votes counted as of late
yesterday, it is safe to say that few surprises have come from
Thursday's general election for the House of Representatives
members and regional legislatures.

As widely expected, the dominant Golkar is at this stage
securely headed toward the landslide victory its leaders
projected. As of late yesterday, Golkar had secured around 74
percent of the vote, well above the group's 70.2 percent target.

As has also been predicted, the Moslem-based United
Development Party (PPP) can expect to see its representation in
the national legislature grow. As of late yesterday, the party
had secured 24 percent of the vote, a considerable increase
compared to the 17 percent it garnered in the 1992 election.

If anything comes close to a surprise, it is the severity of
the blow the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) has suffered.
Certainly, after the split it suffered as a result of an ongoing
leadership dispute, the party's poor performance in the election
surprises no one. But the pitiful 3 percent of votes it has
managed to garner so far is certainly far below the 15 percent it
obtained in the 1992 general election to be ascribed to plain bad
luck.

The more rational explanation appears to be that the incurable
leadership rift within the party has motivated many PDI
supporters to switch their allegiance. For the most part, it
seems, this has been in favor of the PPP. Still unknown, however,
is the number of Indonesians -- former PDI supporters and others
-- who voted "Golput", by either abstaining from voting or
deliberately rendering their ballots invalid in protest.

While the final count is yet to be taken, a tentative estimate
would allot 325 of the 425 contested seats in the national
legislature to Golkar, with 87 seats going to the PPP and 13 to
the PDI. So far, it appears that everything has gone smoothly,
and while a few isolated protests against the election results
have been reported, it is hoped that no violence will further mar
the election process and that the final count will be acceptable
to all.

Amid the relief that voting has proceeded smoothly, it must be
noted that, even with the counting still in progress, allegations
of widespread fraud and vote-rigging have already been coming in
from Golkar's main contender in the general election, the PPP.
Similar allegations have also come from the Independent Election
Monitoring Committee (KIPP). The PPP executive board is
reportedly expected to meet soon to decide whether or not the
party will accept the official results.

While it may be easy to shrug off such complaints as being an
almost established part of general elections in many countries,
especially in the developing world, it is important to examine
these allegations if we are serious in our intention to gradually
establish a healthy working democracy in which justice and
prosperity can prevail together, as envisaged by our founding
fathers.

Surely, no one in his right mind wants our pace of economic
growth and development -- already among the highest in this
region -- to slacken, much less to be stopped or reversed. It is
for the sake of the well-being of present and future generations
of Indonesians that this pace be maintained or, if possible, be
stepped up. To that end, the preservation of a genuine and
dynamic stability, both economic and political, is imperative.

Let us hope that this year's general election will prove to be
instrumental in bringing about the proper conditions to enable us
to reach that goal within the not-too-distant future.