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Indonesia opposition wins

May 9, 2014

Indonesia's biggest opposition party has narrowly won last month's legislative elections, but with a slender portion of votes. In a tight race, four parties won double-digit returns, but none took even 20 percent.

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Megawati Sukarnoputri
Image: AFP/Getty Images

On Friday, General Elections Commission Chairman Husni Kamil Manik announced that, as predicted, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri (pictured) had won. The PDI-P, as it is known in Indonesia, garnered nearly 19 percent of the vote in the April 9 election for the 560-seat House of Representatives. That gives momentum to Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, called by some the Indonesian Obama, whom Megawati had picked to run in the July 9 presidential election.

A party or coalition of parties must be able to boast 25 percent of the vote in order to nominate a presidential candidate, meaning the PDI-P will need support to push for Widodo's candidacy. A party executive with the National Democrat party, which won 6.7 percent of the vote, told Reuters on Friday that his bloc would ally with PDI-P as promised before the vote.

Four in double figures

Golkar, the ruling party during the Suharto dictatorship, took nearly 15 percent, followed by the Great Indonesia Movement Party, which pulled in almost 12 percent and hopes to send the former general Prabowo Subianto to the presidency in July.

In a poll in which corruption played a large role for voters, the ruling Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono garnered 10 percent to place fourth. Corruption has become widespread in Indonesia since the 1998 overthrow of the Suharto dictatorship.

mkg/msh (dpa, AP)