JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Boosting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's reelection bid and reform effort, the unofficial results of parliamentary elections released Friday showed his Democratic Party with a strong lead.
The party received more than 20% of votes cast in Thursday's general election, according to projections by the Indonesian Survey Institute based on a sample of results from polling stations.
Yudhoyono's main rival, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, was locked in a close race for second with the Golkar Party of former dictator President Suharto. Both were polling about 14%.
If confirmed by the official count, the Democratic Party's lead would qualify it to put up a candidate to run in July's presidential election.
Yudhoyono, a former army general, is the first Indonesian president to serve a full term since 1998. Any potential candidate who fails to meet the threshold of 20% of votes can negotiate with other parties to form a coalition to reach the minimum support required to run.
As the count continued Friday, Megawati was reported to be holding coalition talks with former generals Wiranto and Prabowo, who, like many Indonesians, use only one name.
Yudhoyono told reporters Friday that he had begun discussions with other parties in an apparent effort to build a stronger position for pressing political and economic reforms if he is re-elected.
"For me, those who have goodwill in running a better government for the next five years deserve to form a coalition, from any ideologies, as long as they have a good track record," he told reporters at his home in Bogor, south of Jakarta.
Yudhoyono confirmed that he was talking with at least one Islamic party and the Golkar party, whose chairman, Yusuf Kalla, is his vice president.
More than 170 million Indonesians were eligible to vote for members of the 560-seat national legislature, called the House of Representatives, provincial assemblies and other bodies. More than a million candidates from 38 political parties ran for seats.
Indonesian analysts say voters have become increasingly sophisticated since Suharto's 32-year rule collapsed during Asia's 1998 economic meltdown. They want concrete reforms.
Thursday's general election was the third since Suharto's regime collapsed, but the first in which votes could be cast for individual candidates instead of parties.
