Jul 9th, 2009 | JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's election was largely free and fair, independent observers said Thursday, as preliminary results showed the president had easily won enough votes to govern for another five years.
Early returns showed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had more than 60 percent of the votes, more than enough to avoid a September runoff.
But the campaign of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday alleged that Yudhoyono's Democratic Party committed electoral fraud. Without providing proof, they questioned the validity of quick counts after polling and threatened to contest the final results, raising fears of political deadlock in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million.
"The implementation of the presidential elections was still far from democratic," said Prabowo Subianto, Megawati's vice presidential running mate. Her camp claims it has found millions of fictional names on the list of eligible voters.
But observers said Wednesday's election process had been a success.
"So far there is no evidence of systematic or massive fraud," said Nico Harjanto of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noting even if all the contested votes were awarded to Yudhoyono's opponents, the president would still win.
The result was welcomed by the United States, which works closely with Jakarta to counter the threat of Islamist militancy and seeks to mend ties with the Muslim world. American businesses have significant holdings in the resource-rich country, Southeast Asia's largest economy.
U.S. Ambassador Cameron Hume congratulated Yudhoyono, saying in a statement that the peaceful vote "demonstrated the commitment of Indonesians to their vibrant democracy."
It was unclear if formal challenges to the vote had been filed, but similar complaints from the losers of the 2004 presidential election did not result in formal legal action.
The National Election Commission, which has faced widespread accusations of corruption and incompetence, did not respond to repeated phone calls seeking comment.
The commission reported Yudhoyono had 62 percent in preliminary figures based on more than 18.7 million ballots counted.
Megawati was running second with 28 percent, and Vice President Jusuf Kalla third with 10 percent. The commission did not say how many ballots were cast in all. There were 176 million registered voters.
A final result is expected by the end of July after all the ballots are collected in the capital, Jakarta, for recounting.
The election commission's preliminary results supported findings of an independent pollster, Indonesian Survey Circle, that conducted quick counts at 2,000 polling stations nationwide after the voting and had Yudhoyono winning 60 percent of the vote.
Kalla accepted defeat and congratulated Yudhoyono on his re-election, national campaign chief Fahmi Idris told The Associated Press. Kalla initially refused to accept the early counts, saying his advisers gave numbers indicating a different outcome.
Yudhoyono, a 59-year old former general who became Indonesia's first directly elected leader in 2004, ushered in a period of stability and economic growth during his first term and had been widely predicted to win re-election.
He was confident of victory after the vote.
"The (official) vote count is clearly not finished, although quick counts show the success of our struggle," he said in televised comments from his private residence. Complaints about the results can be filed with elections officials, he noted.
Voting passed off calmly Wednesday. There were no reports of major incidents at roughly 450,000 polling stations spread across this vast archipelago of 17,000 islands.
Yudhoyono won praise on the international stage for a swift crackdown on radical Muslim militants after a series of suicide bombings killed 240 people from 2002 to 2005.
He has also effectively managed the economy, which is expected to expand by 4 percent in 2009 despite a global recession.
Still, Indonesia faces other huge obstacles in attracting foreign investment to improve its crumbling infrastructure, creating an independent judiciary and reducing poverty of up to 100 million people.
Sunny Tanuwidjaja, an analyst at the Jakarta-based independent Center for Strategic and International Studies, said a reinvigorated Yudhoyono is up to the task. "We'll see a more vibrant, more assertive president," he said. "He wants to leave a big legacy for himself in the Indonesian history."
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Associated Press writers Zakki Hakim, Irwan Firdaus and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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