Indonesia's transformation into the world's third-largest democracy brought immediate benefits yesterday in the form of a surging stock market and rising currency. Share prices matched the exuberance of the population and soared over 12 per cent yesterday to take the index to 687 points, its highest since August 1997 and the rupiah rose five per cent.
After a year of turmoil, the peaceful general election on Monday has brought a new mood of buoyancy to the vast archipelago of over 14,000 islands, helped by the release of a $450 million loan from the International Monetary Fund which had been held back because of election uncertainties.
People from the suburbs of Jakarta to the tropical rain-forest of Kalimantan united to reject the ruling Golkar party, created as a vehicle for disgraced President Suharto and push the popular Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri towards victory in a presidential election later this year.
Last night Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) had secured 40.80 per cent of the vote. Its ally, the Muslim Nation Awakening Party, was second with 26.20 per cent and Golkar third with 12 per cent. With 48 parties competing for seats in a 500-member parliament, the count at over a quarter of a million polling booths is proving agonisingly slow. By 7 p.m. local time yesterday, more than a day after the polls closed, only about a million of the more than 100 million votes had been tallied. "This is because there are so many parties and everyone is watching the counting process very carefully," said election commission official Mr Dana Tarsono. "Also in the past it was impossible to trace back the voting figures to local level so we are intent on providing completely accurate and fair data."
In elections during the last 32 years the vote was rigged in favour of Golkar, which acted as a vehicle for President Suharto.
PDI-P senior adviser Mr Eros Djarot predicted a commanding win for Megawati with 40 per cent of the vote.