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June 6, 1999
Web posted at: 1:41 a.m. EDT (0541 GMT)

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesians are preparing to vote on Monday in a general election that could turn their huge country into the world's third largest democracy.

Many predict Indonesia's 130 million voters -- the bulk of them not born the last time there was a free vote -- will choose sweeping change and cast out the last vestiges of the long and now-discredited reign of former president and strongman Suharto.

On Sunday, polling booths were being set up around the huge archipelago at the end of a three-week election campaign which was remarkable for its lack of serious violence.

CNN's Mike Chinoy reported that election supervisors were concerned about reports of missing ballots and pre-marked ballots, and were taking pains to assure that the election would be fair, and the balloting results, acceptable.

An Indonesian military police officer tries to calm down a frenzied crowd Friday

The government has also spent large sums on equipment, so that the vote can be counted quickly after the election, reports CNN's Maria Ressa.

Before the campaign, Indonesia had been rocked by some of the worst communal violence and economic turmoil in its history, but the unrest seems at last to be calming down.

"Maybe it will not be perfect, but it will be acceptable for the Indonesian people. This coming election will be much freer, far better and far fairer compared with previous elections," said one of Indonesia's best known opposition leaders, Amien Rais.

The international community has invested more than $40 billion to rescue Indonesia's battered economy and has sent in hundreds of poll observers.

Two thirds of Monday's voters were not born when Indonesia last held a democratic election in 1955.

That poll ended in failure: opposing parties were at each other's throat, parliament could not function and founding President Sukarno took control by establishing "guided democracy" -- a euphemism for military-backed autocracy.

This was to remain a way of life for Indonesians until last year when Sukarno's successor, Suharto, was forced to step down after a 32-year reign.

Opinion polls show the opposition parties taking the lion's share of the vote for the new parliament, which is finally set to take a leading role in the country's political life after decades as Suharto's rubber stamp.

The polls also show the ruling Golkar party -- once guaranteed two thirds of the vote in the Suharto era -- could well be cast into the political wilderness.

Many political analysts predict the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle, which has a huge following among the country's poor, will be the front runner in Monday's vote.

Indonesian elections workers check ballot boxes in Jakarta

The party's hugely popular leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, told Reuters she expected to win 40 percent of the vote.

But analysts are more skeptical, saying her party may not win enough votes to dominate parliament alone and may be forced to join other opposition parties in a coalition.

It has already formed an uneasy alliance with two other opposition parties but none will commit themselves to open talk of a coalition until after the election.

The horse trading will start in earnest after the election when even Golkar could still have a chance to sit in a coalition.

It is also unclear with whom the influential military will side. The military is not allowed to vote but gets handed 38 sets in the new parliament.

Party platforms have taken a back seat in the campaign to personalities, making Monday's vote almost a dry-run for the presidential election set for November.

The head of the most successful party in Monday's poll will automatically become front-runner for president.

For the moment, most are focusing on Megawati, daughter of the charismatic Sukarno.

Opinion polls give unpopular encumbent B.J. Habibie, the choice of Golkar, little chance.

Around 12 gunmen burned four buses in Aceh, where calls for a boycott of the upcoming general election have been strong

Indonesia plans to go ahead with polling in the restive province of Aceh during Monday's general election despite escalating violence, the official Antara news agency said.

But Antara quoted election commission chairman Rudini as saying he did not rule out a last-minute delay if the situation suddenly took a serious turn for the worse.

"This is a very flexible decision. We will decide to postpone if something makes it impossible to organise it," Rudini told reporters after a meeting late on Saturday.

General Election Commission officials in Aceh would stay in close contact with Jakarta on the day.

Indonesians go to the polls on Monday in their first democratic election for 44 years, but in Aceh voter registration has been low and campaigning muted. There has also been an upsurge in clashes between the military and alleged separatists.

A low-level separatist insurgency by the rebel Free Aceh movement has been simmering for decades in the resource-rich province, on the northern tip of Sumatra. Scores of people have been killed in violence in the province this year.

A senior military official responsible for the worst-hit areas said on Sunday the army would try to secure the voting.

"We will do our best," Colonel Johnny Wahab told Reuters by telephone from Lhokseumawe, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northwest of Jakarta.

Antara reported armed men had attacked a police station in the neighbouring town of Sigli on Saturday. A policeman and three civilians were injured, it said.

Indonesia's 130 million voters will choose a five-year parliament on Monday. The poll is being contested by 48 parties.

In Aceh, there have been widespread calls for a boycott and for a referendum on self-rule instead. Around 2,000 Acehnese died during a special military operation to crush the rebels which officially ended last August. Clashes have continued since then.

Correspondents Maria Ressa and Mike Chinoy, and Reuters contributed to this report.

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