The Wire

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been elected as Indonesia’s new president, according to a statistically reliable sample of the national-wide presiential vote. While Megawati Sukarnoputri is expected to wait until the count is formally over, before she concedes defeat, the survey’s results have the former Indonesian army general gaining at least 61 percent of the vote. Erica Vowles spoke to Dr Edward Aspinall, a lecturer in South East Asian Politics and History at Sydney University, about what the election outcome means for Indonesia’s bourgeoning democratic process.