AP News, August 8th, 2007
Millions of people in the Indonesian capital voted for governor for the first time Wednesday, the latest in a wave of local elections hailed as key to strengthening democracy in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Indonesia emerged from 32 years of dictatorship in 1998 after Gen. Suharto fell, leading to reforms that freed the media, struck down repressive laws and allowed citizens to vote for president in 2004.
Attracting less attention, but equally as important, has been a local democratic revolution, with more than 300 regions have chosen mayors, governors and district chiefs.
Previously, local lawmakers elected the officials behind closed doors, often after receiving money from the candidates.
"I'm very happy, I've been looking forward to this day," said Wanem, a 47-year-old housewife as she waited to cast her ballot. "We never had the right to chose before, someone always did it for us."
Early results in Wednesday's vote showed Jakarta's deputy governor, Fauzi Bowo, headed for a comfortable victory over his sole rival, a former deputy police chief supported by a conservative Muslim party.
Bowo's campaign team had suggested that Adang Daradjatun might introduce Islamic-style laws in Jakarta, shutting down nightclubs and stripping alcohol from store shelves, because of the Welfare and Justice Party's backing.
Daradjatun denied this, saying it was a smear campaign by Bowo, who was supported by 19 mostly secular parties, including the country's two largest.
The two candidates contesting Jakarta's top job have focused on how they would fix the many problems facing the city's 9 million people, including chronic poverty and unemployment, grinding traffic jams and yearly floods that kill scores.
But the campaign has also touched on other issues, including corruption and Islam's role in public life.
"Changes happen at the local level," said Jeremy Gross, elections program manager at the Asia Foundation, a U.S.-based group that has been supporting the process. "Previously, no issues were raised in public. Now, very important issues are being raised and this is starting to put pressures on candidates to address them."
Though current laws state that candidates must be nominated by political parties, none put forward any names and instead sold their backing to independents. Media reports said the hopefuls _ Bowo and Daradjatun _ each paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to political parties to be nominated by them. The parties have been campaigning on their behalf.
By late afternoon, Bowo had 56 percent of the votes, while Daradjatun tallied 44 percent, according to the results of a "quick count" by respected local pollster, the Indonesian Survey Institute.
The quick count is based on a sampling of votes cast at 400 polling stations and had a margin of error of 1 to 2 percentage points, it said. Official results will not be released until Aug. 18.
Indonesia has 220 million people, a majority of whom are moderate Muslims.
The United States and other Western nations are eager to support the country, which they hold up as an example of how Islam and democracy can coexist.
