EC GUEST OBSERVERS FOR INDONESIAN ELECTIONS

JAKARTA, April 9 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's Election Commission (EC) was
honoured as guests of Indonesia's General Election Commission (KPU) to observe
the electoral process of that country's legislative elections Thursday.

The EC delegation was headed by its deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar who
was accompanied by two other commission members, Christopher Wan Soo Kee and
Zainal Abidin Mat Said, as well as two EC secretariat officers.

"Today we were honoured to witness Indonesian president Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono vote in Cikeas, Bogor in West Java," Wan Ahmad told Bernama here.

Besides Malaysia, other observers are from the European Union, the United
States, Japan and Australia.

Wan Ahmad said the close ties between the EC and KPU went back a long way
and added that the EC had also invited KPU to witness the democratic process
during Malaysia's 12th general election.

In Indonesia's 10th general election as many as 171 million registered
voters will pick representatives from 11,300 candidates from 33 provinces to
fill 560 seats in the People's Representative Council or Indonesia's parliament.

Indonesians will also simultaneously pick members for the Regional
Representatives Councils from tens of thousands of candidates from 33 political
parties at the national level.

Also voting will be 800,000 Indonesians working in Malaysia who are part of
the 1.5 million Indonesian workforce in 117 countries.

More than 512,000 voting centres opened at 7am and closed at noon.

Observation by Bernama at various voting centres in central and south
Jakarta was that voting was proceeding smoothly under tight control by security
forces.

However, at many of the centres there were also reports on some commotion
when some people protested strongly that their names were not listed in the
electoral rolls.

The election results will be known in a month's time although some quarters
had been given permission by the KPU to announce the results after counting
votes on their own initiative.
-- BERNAMA