Voters giddy about new power to choose their president

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

Indonesia took a giant leap toward proving that it was truly one of the world's largest democracies on Monday when voters flocked to some 570,000 polling stations to choose future leaders in the country's first direct presidential election.

Registered voters across the country exercised their right to directly elect their leaders, highlighting a complete transition to full democracy after more than three decades of iron-fisted leadership and a rocky six-year transition period.

There were hardly any reports of election-related violence or coercion to vote for certain candidates.

"Of course this has been a great election for me, because I could actually choose the leader that I want," said Nurhayati, from Kebagusan, South Jakarta said on Tuesday.

The five candidates were Wiranto, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Amien Rais, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Hamzah Haz.

Before Monday's historic vote, presidents and vice presidents were elected by a few hundred members of the People's Consultative Assembly, the country's highest legislative body.

An elated Nurhayati added that previous elections always disappointed the people.

"But now we are the ones who decide and even if our candidates lose, at least we have cast our votes for him or her," the young housewife said.

In the 1999 elections, the first since the fall of Soeharto, Megawati's party won the legislative election, but she lost the presidential election after a group of Muslim-based political parties mobilized themselves to block her presidential bid.

Another voter, Hadi Wijaya, said in the past he had always voted, but Monday was the first time he really felt happy about casting his vote because he could directly express his support for his choice of candidates.

"For me going to the voting booth was like an obligation for the country, but now I feel that this is the thing that I have to do for me too," Hadi, a young executive who works in Pluit said.

The MPR amended the 1945 Constitution and introduced the direct presidential election shortly after the 1999 election.

"This is the first time in 10 years that I have voted. I passed up the April 5 legislative election, but decided to vote in the presidential election," Anita Sumadi said after voting on Monday.

She said the feeling of freedom was one of the reasons that she finally participated. "At least I can partly determine the fate of our people and our country."

The police said on Tuesday that security was much better than the April 5 election, when a minor bombing incident took place in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

"Reports to the National Police chief from all provincial police indicated that only a few minor incidents occurred on voting day," National Police Chief of Detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Sudjono said.