Tortoise and hare race

Our neighbour has been reforming very quietly. With Susilo potential wins for the second term to carry on with his reforms, it is a matter of time, Malaysia will send their maids to Indonesia.

(TheEdgeMalaysia)JAKARTA: Although the official results will not be released until the end of July, various quick count and exit poll results are consistently predicting that Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be re-elected in the first round and a second run-off will not be necessary.

Local media reported that as of the night of July 8, 2% of the 176 million votes have been counted and he is leading with 60.7% of the votes.

Indonesia Survey Institute shows that Susilo has captured 60.8% of the votes, with former president Megawati Sukarnoputri in second with 26.6% and current vice president Jusuf Kalla capturing 12.6% of the votes.

Other pollsters are showing similar results with Susilo getting about 60% of the votes. This implies that the president will fulfil one of the conditions of being re-elected in the first round, which is capturing more than half of the votes.

It is also likely he will be able to meet the second condition, which is to get at least 20% of votes in more than half of the 33 provinces.

The scale of Susilo victory will add to his party’s (Demokrat Party) strong performance in the April parliamentary elections and give the president a strong mandate.

The Demokrat Party will be the biggest in the next parliament (which will convene in July) and will occupy 27% of parliamentary seats vs. 11% currently. This advantage has enabled him to part with VP Kalla and the Golkar party (that will occupy 19% of the parliamentary seats) and pick ex-Bank Indonesia governor Boediono as his running mate, now vice president-elect, instead.

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/business-news/18290-susilo-victory-boosts-optimism.html