Indonesia’s ruling Golkar Party back in the saddle

HONG KONG, June 1: Indonesia’s ruling Golkar Party, assured of poll victory long before it faced parliamentary elections last Thursday, romped home, marginally increasing its share of votes to 74.30 in the final tally today.There appeared to have been no significant rise in the protest vote, and during the most violent election campaign in three decades, Golkar’s main contender the Muslim-oriented United Development Party pushed its share up to nearly 23 per cent from 17 in 1992. The Christian Nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party saw its share of the votes dive to a mere three per cent from 15, five years ago.

The final outcome of the election drew criticism from the US state department, Indonesia’s independent election monitoring committee and the United Development Party for the manner in which the polls were conducted.In an unusual move, the state department had called on Friday for changes in Indonesia’s political system, saying the elections were strictly controlled by the government. According to some analysts, the final tally could have been manipulated as a large protest vote would have been embarrassing for the long-serving President Suharto, who had praised the conduct of the election.

Violence erupted in East Timor, a former Portuguese possession, where in the second phase of clashes, 17 members of the security forces were killed in an ambush yesterday.