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The results would make it easier for Yudhoyono to cruise through the July presidential elections. (Reuters) |
JAKARTA — President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party is leading in the Thursday general elections, opening the incumbent leader's way for re-election in the 8 July presidential polls, according to a leading research institute.
The Democratic Party is ahead with 20.27 percent of the vote followed by Golkar Party with 14.82 percent, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) with 14.23 percent and the Islamic-rooted Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) with 7.84 percent of the vote, according to quick count result by the respected LP3ES.
Projections by the independent Indonesian Survey Institute also showed the Democrats winning 20.4 percent of the votes.
Final official results from across the archipelago's 6,000 inhabited islands could take weeks to tally, and the shape of the new government will not be known until after presidential elections in July.
The PKS, established by a group of Muslim intellectuals and scholars in 1998, is a member of Yudhoyono’s ruling coalition.
The party, 1998, whose popularity grew significantly over the past decade, is emerging as the biggest Islamic party in the country.
It is expected to improve its role in ruling the country, as a number of its members have been posted in various strategic position in provincial, regent and district levels.
The PKS is now dominating in cities across the country while remote areas are mostly controlled by most established parties.
Only parties that achieve the electoral threshold of 2.5 percent of the cast votes or get at least 4.3 million voters will be awarded seats in the parliament.
The other parties that crossed the threshold are National Mandate Party (PAN) with 5.7 percent of the vote, the national-Islamic Nation Awakening Party (PKB) with 5.3 percent, the Islamic-rooted United Development (PPP) with 5.1 percent, Gerindra Party with 4.63 percent and Hanura Party with 3.73 percent of the vote.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation with a population of 220 million, around 85 percent of them follows Islam.
The country is described as the world's third-largest democracy, after India and the United States.
Presidential Boost
The election results would make it easier for Yudhoyono to win a second five-year term in the July presidential vote.
"His chance is very big to be re-elected again," Usep Saeful Ahyar, a senior research at LP3ES Institute, told IslamOnline.net.
A party, or a coalition of parties, can nominate a candidate for the presidential election if it holds twenty percent of the 560 seats in the House of Representative or 25 percent of vote in today's election.
President Yudhoyono founded the Democratic Party in 2001 and has ever since been its most prominent figure.
Usep says Yudhoyono government is credited with establishing peace in Aceh province after almost three decades of separatist conflict and honoring many of its 2004 campaign such as leading an aggressive campaign against corruption and maintaining economic and political stability.
"President Yudhoyono is successful in entertaining people with oil prices cut and direct cash assistance," he added.
"Even if Yudhoyono is paired with any figure for presidency, he would win."
A second round of the presidential polls, scheduled for July 9, will be held in September if no candidate wins a clear majority.
"But I predict no second round," Usep said.
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