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.