Word: kallas
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...local level, and more Indonesian women wear the veil today than three decades ago. But on a national level, Islamic parties fared poorly in April's legislative polls, winning nine percentage points fewer than they did in 2004. In this month's presidential race, attempts by third-place finisher Kalla to court an Islamic vote backfired...
...Upwards of 100 million voters scattered across 920-plus permanently inhabited islands went to the voting booth. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was picked for a second term by roughly 60% of the voting populace, according to unofficial results, outpacing rivals Megawati Sukarnoputri and Jusuf Kalla, who garnered around 27% and 13% respectively. Yudhoyono, popularly known among Indonesians by his initials S.B.Y., was expected to win, not least because his first five-year term wasn't syncopated by the constant drumbeat of political and economic scandals that had marred previous Presidents' tenures. Yet the electoral outcome served as much as a vote...
...tripling its showing from the last polls, I walked the streets of Yogyakarta in central Java, marveling at the colorful profusion of campaign posters: the red-and-white star motif of the Democrats, the black bull of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the green banyan tree of Kalla's Golkar Party. Taxis had their radios tuned to political talk shows, and youths on motorcycles revved their engines as they carried their chosen parties' flags through town. I knew that many of these young campaigners were canvassing in exchange for pocket money or gas for their bikes. Still...
...such a distant second, it is perhaps not surprising that Megawati, both a former President and daughter of the country's founding father, Sukarno, would begin to point fingers in the eleventh hour. Current Vice President Jusuf Kalla has also voiced concern over voter fraud. It remains to be seen, however, how much effect these complaints will have given that the elections are run by the General Elections Commission, an independent body known as the KPU. "This is an act of desperation," says Bara Hasibuan, a member of the Yudhoyono campaign team. "They should be asking...
...Nevertheless, calls for a delay are already being discussed by the opposition. "The incompetence of the KPU has reached an intolerable level," says Ida Sudoyo, a media advisor to the Megawati campaign. "It is possible that we, along with Jusuf Kalla, will soon ask for the elections to be delayed until the proper preparations are made...