SINGAPORE -- Indonesians go to the polls Sept. 20 in the second round of balloting to choose between Megawati Sukarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (affectionally known as SBY) as president for the next five years.
The polls are in fact the third round of elections to be held in Indonesia this year following the legislative, regional and local polls in April and the first round of the presidential elections July 5. This has been a great year for Indonesian democracy, although one may wonder whether Indonesians are suffering from electoral fatigue at this point.
Since this is the first Indonesian presidential election by universal suffrage, voting trends are still not well understood. The current elections center on two sets of dialectics: