Noticias

A public opinion poll conducted by the Jakarta-based Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) found that a majority of respondents would like to hear more about the 2014 presidential candidates’ programs before they cast their votes in the presidential election on July 9.

The LSI survey, released on Tuesday and conducted between 15 and 18 April in 33 provinces, found 65.7 percent of 1200 respondents said they wanted to hear presidential candidates talk about their future policies if elected, while only 17.25 percent wanted to know about the possible future coalition. 

Rizal Djalil, a former National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker, was elected new Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chairman on Tuesday, replacing Hadi Poernomo who was named a graft suspect in a high profile tax fraud case.

“Rizal Djalil was elected democratically. The deputy chairman position is still held by Hasan Bisri. No vote counting was conducted because all meeting participants agreed on his election unanimously,” BPK secretary-general Hendar Ristriawan said after a four-hour session, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) party wants to see women occupy 30 percent of high positions in the government if the party wins the presidential election bid 2014, partys Chairman Suhardi stated here on Tuesday.

"It is part of partys support toward gender equality and improvement of womens roles in every aspect of life," Suhardi explained.

The United Development Party’s (PPP) national leaders meeting (Rapimnas), which concluded early on Sunday, resulted in the decision to temporarily dismiss Suryadharma Ali from his position as the party’s chairman.

It was said Suryadharma’s dismissal was because he refused to attend the meeting, which was initiated by secretary-general Muchammad Romahurmuziy and attended by more than half of the party’s executives.

Jakarta. While waiting for the General Elections Committee to release the official results of last week’s election, Indonesia’s political arena continues to keep itself busy with a flurry of activities.

Parties are now evaluating their quick-count results and shaping their latest strategies in facing the upcoming presidential election; the countries election committee is struggling with unresolved problems related to recounts and problematic ballot boxes throughout the archipelago; while the media is scrambling to gauge the final outcome of the unpredictable race.

Jakarta. The window for registrations for Indonesia’s presidential election in July will open next month, the national polling body announced on Tuesday.

Ferry Kurnia, a member of the General Elections Commission, or KPU, said in Jakarta that the registration period would run from May 18 to 20.

After the registration, the KPU will conduct a verification and administrative check on the documents submitted by the applicants, which should take around days to complete, Ferry said.

KPU will also carry out health check on the candidates.

JAKARTA: A week after the legislative elections in Indonesia, political parties are working hard to form coalitions to better their chances at the July 9 presidential elections.

Indonesia's top three political parties in this general election -- PDI-P, Golkar and Gerindra -- have become coalition focal points.

Jakarta governor Joko Widodo of the PDI-P, business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie of Golkar and former general Prabowo Subianto of Gerindra are the stalwarts of their parties and likely presidential candidates.

The 15 percent of the popular vote garnered by the Golkar Party in the April 9 legislative election quick count appears to have failed to stop clashes between the party’s rival factions. 

The conflict appears to have worsened, with the party’s current chairman Aburizal Bakrie and his camp bracing for a step-up in attacks from other party members in the upcoming national meeting.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) has offered to form an alliance with the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) by putting forward a candidate to fill the vice presidential position, an offer it said was reasonable due to the PKB’s good performance in the recent legislative election.

“It’s reasonable for us as a party with a high number of votes to offer a vice presidential candidate. We’ve proposed this to the PDI-P,” said the head of the PKB’s central executive board Marwan Jafar on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.