Indonesian presidential election, 2004
Presidential elections will be held in Indonesia on July 5, 2004. In August 2002 the Indonesian parliament, the House of People's Representatives, approved an amendment providing for the popular election of the President and Vice-President of the Republic beginning in 2004. These will be the first direct presidential elections in the history of Indonesia. Previously the President of Indonesia has been elected indirectly, by the legislature.The field of candidates for the presidential election will be partly determined by the results of the legislative election held on April 5. Indoesnian election law provides that presidential candidates must be nominated by - but not necessarily be members of - a party or coalition that wins at least 5 percent of votes in the parliamentary election, or 3 percent of the seats in the House of People's Representatives.
Candidates will be registered in the week beginning May 1, and will be announced on May 19. The first round of the presidential election will be held on July 5. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, plus at least 20 percent of the vote in at least half of Indonesia's provinces, a runoff between the top two candidates will be held on September 20. The successful candidate will be announced on October 5, and the new President will inaugurated on October 20.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was elected in 1999, will be seeking a second term at these elections. Her party, the Indonesia Democracy Party-Struggle (PDI-P), appears to have polled only 18 percent of the vote in the legislative elections, suggesting that Megawati may have an uphill battle to gain re-election. Her administration has been criticised for inertia and corruption.
Other possible candidates include Vice-President Hamzah Haz, Golkar party leader Akbar Tanjung, National Mandate Party leader Amien Rais, Islamist leader Nur Wahid, former armed forces chief Wiranto and former security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Recent opinion polls have suggested that Yudhoyono (known as SBY) is now Indonesia's most popular politician, and his Democrat Party polled more than 7 percent of the vote in the legislative election despite having little organisation. He is, like most Indonesian politicians, a former Army officer, who resigned from the cabinet of President Abdurrahman Wahid in protest at Wahid's attempt to impose martial law.
Yudhoyono was security minister under Megawati at the time of the 2002 Bali bombing, and took a high profile in the successful campaign to apprehend those responsible. He resigned from Megawati's cabinet in March after a dispute with the President.Possible candidates