Ex-general leads in Indonesia election

Former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono maintained a commanding lead in Indonesia’s first direct presidential election today with nearly three-quarters of the votes counted, according to the country’s election commission.

Yudhoyono, who has led since Monday’s historic vote, remained the front-runner at 33.55% with 72% of the ballots counted. He is followed by President Megawati Sukarnoputri at 26.21%.

The two are widely expected to face each other on September 20 in a run-off election.

Former General Wiranto, the nominee of ex-dictator Suharto’s Golkar Party, trails in third with 22.2% and lawmaker Amien Rais is in fourth with 14.9%. Vice President Hamzah Haz is last with 3.1%.

Final results were expected on July 26, though supporters of Wiranto and Rais have threatened to challenge them in court because millions of votes that were initially deemed invalid are being recounted.

Neither Wiranto nor the other two losing candidates has conceded defeat, but their parties are already talking of forming a coalition with one of the winners.

Golkar officials have met party leaders from Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party and Megawati’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDIP, in preliminary discussions.

Some analysts said a PDIP-Golkar coalition is likely because the two parties teamed up to force Abdurrahman Wahid from the presidential office in 2001 after he was impeached on corruption charges. They also worked together during much of Megawati’s three-year presidency.

Wahid’s National Awakening Party is also expected to join a coalition with Megawati, despite their difficulties in the past, because many members of Wahid’s party are part of the Muslim organisation Nahdlatul Ulama – whose chairman, Hasyim Muzadi, is Megawati’s vice president.

Others argue that Golkar could back Yudhoyono because more than a third of its members voted for him and he has the backing of the country’s business community, along with that of many international governments.