Indonesia general election tomorrow

INDONESIA: Indonesians will cast their ballots Thursday in only the third general election since the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, which ushered in a new era of democratic reform.

The country's 171 million eligible voters are being asked to choose between thousands of candidates in a legislative vote that will help decide the field of contenders for presidential elections in July.

Billed as a celebration of the country's young democracy, a new study found it could also be the last rites for up to 30 small political parties expected to fail to reach the 2.5 percent vote threshold to enter parliament.

"We'll see the burial of many small parties," Denny Januar Ali of the Indonesian Survey Circle, a polling and research agency, said Tuesday.

He said only eight to 11 parties out of 38 competing for the 560-seat House of Representatives would survive to see another election.

Looking at the party posters and flags that have littered the streets of the world's third-largest democracy during the three-week campaign period it is hardly surprising they are struggling to win support.

One candidate depicts himself as Superman in a green cape and tights, another as James Bond.

There are fighter pilots and helicopter pilots and a bearded mountain man alongside "Lord of the Rings" wizard Gandalf.

JAKARTA, AFP