Ballot Casting

Caption: A voter casts her ballot at a polling station in West Bandung in today.

Today Indonesian voters went the polling stations to elect their representatives in the regional and national legislative councils. "Pemilu Legislatif" (Legislative General Elections) is the first of the two-phase elections. In the second phase, Indonesians will cast their votes to elect their president and vice president for the next five year term.

Photos of Indonesian Presidential Election: The Balloting Day

Today is the balloting day for the Indonesian Presidential Election. It's the second time Indonesians directly elect their president. (The first was in 2004. Before that, the president was elected by Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat or The People's Consultative Assembly.)

Here are some of the photos I took at the balloting station where I cast my vote today.



The balloting day was declared as a public holiday. Balloting stations throughout the country were opened at 08:00 A.M. local time (Indonesia has three time zones: GMT +7, +8, and +9) and closed at 01:00 P.M., at which time the votes began to be counted.

Voting is done by putting a check mark on the number, photo, or the name of pair of the presidential and vice presidential candidates that one chooses.

The top photos shows a Balloting Committee member showing a disqualified vote during the counting. The card was disqualified because the voter had written a word in addition to the check mark.



The tally results at the balloting station where I voted show that the incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Boediono(SBY - Boediono) was leading with 240 votes. The other two pairs of candidates, Megawati-Prabowo (Megapro) and Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto (JK - Win) were trailing behind with 43 votes respectively.