The Indonesian general elections on April 9th were a triumph of democracy in this huge South East Asian nation, five hours across on a jumbo jet, with 171 million registered voters of whom about 70 percent turned out and voted. The people won the election and so did Indonesia.
The country is stable with a strong democracy, minimal election violence (for its size and history) and has enjoyed an economic growth rate of 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
The elections were contested by 44 parties (38 national and 6 provincial), resulted in the top 50 percent of votes going to three nationalist parties, and the next 25 percent to the top four Islamic, or Muslim parties. Two small nationalistic parties led by ex-generals won 8 percent combined.
Only these 9 national parties will be in the House of Representatives since parties must pass a threshold of at least 2.5 percent of the vote to get seats in the House.
The Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won the general election with 20 percent of the votes, and is almost guaranteed to win 25 percent of the national seats. This will be the only party strong enough to nominate a candidate on its own for the July Presidential elections, probably backed by a winning coalition.
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