theSun | FRIDAY APRIL 10 2009
news without borders
President’s party tipped
to win Indonesia vote
JAKARTA: Indonesia voted yesterday in
only its third general election since the
fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, with
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s
Democratic Party tipped to win most seats.
The elections will decide who can run
for president in July, when Susilo will
seek a second five-year term on the back
of his sound economic management and
progress in the fight against corruption.
Five people were killed in attacks
overnight by suspected pro-independence
rebels in eastern Papua province, but
elsewhere in the vast archipelago the vote
passed peacefully.
An unofficial tally by the independent
Indonesian Survey Institute put the Demo-
crats in front with 18.59% of the vote, based
on a partial count from 2,100 ballot stations
mainly in eastern Indonesia.
Analysts said the tally would change as
more votes were counted but so far they
are in line with pre-election opinion polls
which put the centrist Democrats ahead
of ex-president Megawati Sukarnoputri’s
Democratic Party of Struggle and Suharto’s
former ruling party, Golkar. Official results
may not be known for days.
Yesterday’s vote will decide who can
 11
A woman
looks at
her ballot
paper
before
voting in
Thai protesters
threaten summit
as demos spread
run for presi-
a polling
station in
Jakarta
yesterday.
BANGKOK: Thai protesters vowed yesterday to stop
a key Asian summit from taking place and taxi drivers
paralysed traffic in Bangkok as mass street rallies against
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva spread.
Tens of thousands of supporters of fugitive former
premier Thaksin Shinawatra staged a second day of ral-
lies to push for Abhisit’s resignation, fanning out through
dent in the July the capital to several new sites.
election, as par- Tensions rose when around 100 taxi drivers blocked
ties or coalitions a major Bangkok intersection in a display of loyalty to
must hold 20% Thaksin, while protest leaders said they would next
of seats in the target a weekend meeting of Asian leaders in Pattaya.
560-seat lower “We have run out of peaceful measures,” said Jatu-
house or 25% of porn Prompan, the main leader of Thaksin’s so-called
the popular vote “Red Shirts”, told supporters. “Our people will leave for
to nominate a Pattaya tonight, gather protesters and lead them to
candidate. block the road to the hotel where the meeting is organ-
The country’s ised. We will not allow this meeting to take place.”
171 million eligible Jatuporn ordered protesters who had earlier moved
voters were asked to the headquarters of Abhisit’s Democrat Party, the
to choose between foreign ministry and the constitutional court to “please
thousands of can- go to reinforce our taxi drivers at Victory Monument”.
didates on local, Traffic jams stretched back for several kilometres
provincial and na- REUTERSPIX after taxi drivers double-parked at the Bangkok land-
tional levels, across mark. About 6,000 protesters then arrived to support
520,000 polling sta- to death, a girl was killed when a fuel depot the drivers, who have traditionally backed Thaksin.
tions and some 6,000 was set alight, and police skirmished with Earlier, a woman appeared to drive her car at demon-
inhabited islands. suspected rebels along the province’s east- strators in Bangkok before escaping, causing one injury.
Tensions were high in Papua after some ern border with Papua New Guinea. The “Red Shirts” announced their latest move after
100 suspected separatist guerillas armed Thirty-eight parties – loosely divided the expiry of a 24-hour deadline for the resignation of
with arrows and bombs attacked a police along nationalist and religious lines – are Abhisit and a top royal advisor whom they accuse of
post. One of the attackers was shot by police contesting the polls but analysts expect most masterminding the 2006 coup that toppled Thaksin.
and 11 were arrested. will fail to win the required minimum of Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Na-
Elsewhere in Papua, three non-indig- 2.5% of the vote to gain a seat in the House tions plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New
enous motorcycle taxi drivers were knifed of Representatives. – AFP Zealand are set to arrive in Pattaya today. – AFP