Voters want change in government

Voters want change in government

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Though the vote count from Monday's legislative election is still
in the early stages, the gains of two new parties indicate the
desire for serious political reform, according to observers.

Officials had counted a little over two million of an expected
148 million votes by Tuesday evening, but these early figures,
plus an exit poll conducted on Monday by the Institute for Social
and Economic Research, Education and Information (LP3ES),
indicate strong gains by the Democratic Party and the Prosperous
Justice Party (PKS).

By Tuesday evening, official figures had both parties with
about 12 percent each of the votes tallied.

The results indicate that people are distancing themselves
from the older, established political parties, the institute
said.

However, in Monday's exit poll in LP3ES, Golkar was the
projected winner with 22.7 percent of the vote, followed by the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 18.8
percent.

The institute's projections were made from direct observations
of 1,416 of almost 60,000 polling stations across the country,
and by talking to 289,052 voters from 32 provinces.

LP3ES researcher Rustam Ibrahim noted that many people said
they voted for the Democratic Party so that it could pass the 3
percent threshold that would allow the party's cofounder, former
security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to run in the
country's first direct presidential election.

Among those voting for the Democratic Party likely were
disillusioned PDI-P supporters, he said.

The institute predicted that 8 percent of the total votes
obtained by the PDI-P in the 1999 elections would move to the
Democratic Party, while 4 percent of the PDI-P's votes would go
to Golkar.

The LP3ES said the votes gained by the PKS likely came from
those who now preferred it to other Islamic-oriented parties.

Meanwhile, the National Democratic Institute for International
Affairs' Indonesia director, Paul Roland, said the votes gained
by new parties would influence the composition of the legislature
as well as the voting in the July 5 presidential election.