Indonesians go to the polls today for first direct presidential election

Producer: Yvonne Gomez
First broadcast: 5 July 04, Radio Singapore International

Polls opened today for Indonesia’s first direct presidential election, and soon after they closed in the early afternoon, millions of ballot papers inadvertently became invalid.

This was because voters used nails to punch a hole in the box corresponding to their candidate of choice. Because the ballot papers were folded in half, two holes were punched, rendering the vote technically invalid.

However, Indonesia’s election chief has ordered a nationwide recount of votes, making the technically invalid ones, valid.

Incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri hopes to win a second term but faces stiff competition from the widely popular former army generals, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Wiranto.

RSI’s LaRane Hafied is in Jakarta and Yvonne Gomez asked him to describe the mood as voters went to the polls earlier today.

LRH: There’re not as many as expected, because it’s very quiet down here. The polling booths opened at around 7 o’clock and close at around 1pm, and so far, people have only started going to the booths at about 11 o’clock, and this is perhaps because they stayed awake for the Euro 2004 last night, even the presidential candidates. Megawati, who stayed up all night watching the football, also came to the booth at around 11.30am, so did Amien Rais and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

How far are the voters clear about what they’re supposed to do, or is there much confusion?

LRH: This election, I don’t think it’s been confusing, because apart from more socialization being done, in terms of TV programmes to socialize the system of the election, even in each polling booth, there is more information about it. Not forgetting that during the election itself, there are officials to guide the people on the correct way to vote. But again, it’s a very simple election, compared to the legislative election last April. As we know, last April, there were three kinds of ballot papers, wher we had to choose pictures, faces of the MPs and other complicated stuff, while this election, we only had to choose one out of five pairs of cabdidates. That’s all. So this doesn’t make it complicated compared to the legislative elections.

What about the illiterate voters, the ones who can read or write? Has it been easy for them as well?

LRH: Well yes, I’ve seen several samples just early this morning. It’s not very difficult, because they have pictures of the presidential candidates. And the ballot paper is quite huge, and the photos are quite huge. I don’t think there will be any problems. However, there is some problem the concerns people with disabilities, especially the blind. This is because they’re using the Braille system, and from the information I get from the KPU (General Elections Commission), yesterday, the system is not working as perfectly as expected. However, we’ll have to see the results by today. If not, the KPU mentioned doing another round of voting for disabled persons.

I understand there’s some kind of computerized counting system. Have there been any glitches or technical problems at the polling booths?

LRH: So far, everything seems normal. The election counting is centralized at Hotel Borobudur, right in the centre of Jakarta. And from what I can see so far, it’s going very smoothly, even compared with the last legislative election, maybe because they’ve learned a lot, especially with the hacker case and the glitches, especially in the remote provinces. So while I cannot say it going on that smoothly, because w’re still waiting for the result to come in, and it’s only been several hours now after the election started, so we’ll have to see in a couple more days.

Incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri has called on the people to accept and support the winner of the presidential election. How far do you think Indonesians will heed this advice?

LRH: It’s too early to know the reactions, but again, many people look at this as a sign of Megawati’s pessimism about her going on to the second round of elections, especially with the PKS, the party that wants a majority in Jakarta and the province, giving their votes to Amien Rais. So people have been thinking that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Amien Rais will go to the second round, and this has been sign that Megawati will either take the side of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or Amien Rais. As I said, many think it’s just a show of pessimism from Megawati’s side that she won’t be able to enter the second round.