Monday, July 05, 2004
Slumbering soccer fans means slow start to Indonesian election
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP): Presidential elections in the world's largest Muslim nation got off to a slow start Monday with many of Indonesia's millions of soccer fans choosing to sleep in after watching the European championship match.
Most of the 24,000 polling stations in the capital were empty at 7 a.m. local time when voting began, and the normally packed streets of the capital were largely deserted. "It's going to be a late start because all the people around here are still sleeping after watching the soccer,'' said Haji Santosa, a polling official in east Jakarta. Matches in the European tournament were televised beginning at 2 a.m. in Indonesia. Despite the late hour, the competition topped TV ratings across the soccer-mad nation. Turnout at Monday's first direct presidential election in Indonesian history was unlikely to be significantly affected by the soccer match, electoral officials said. Monday was a public holiday, and many people said they would vote after sleeping in, following their all-nighter watching Greece's 1-0 victory over host Portugal. Previously, lawmakers acting as an electoral college choose the president. Turnout in April parliamentary elections in Indonesia was over 80 percent. Although soccer is Indonesia's most popular sport, the national team has never won a trophy in international competitions. The country qualified for its first and, so far, only World Cup tournament 1938 under its pre-independence name of the Dutch East Indies.
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