Meagan Weymes – Former military commander Taur Matan Ruak was ahead in an early count for East Timor's presidential run-off vote on Monday, according to the elections secretariat.

Muhammad Nazar, one of a number of candidates running for the Aceh governorship, was surprised when he was informed that he had barely gathered 8 percent of total votes in the unofficia

On last Monday, voters in Aceh went to the polls to elect a governor, a deputy governor and 17 mayors and regents.

Ezra Sihite – Presidential hopeful Aburizal Bakrie's popularity is growing, Golkar Party officials said on Monday, citing the results of a recent party-backed survey measuring the popul

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police have arrested two former Free Aceh Movement members for allegedly masterminding a string of armed attacks in Aceh ahead of the province's recently-comp

Jakarta – With the presidential election only two years away, Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie has demonstrated his strong intention to become the party's presidential aspirant through m

Ezra Sihite, Agus Triyono, Robertus Wardi & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Despite more than two years of lobbying and backroom deals, the only significant difference between the 2009 e

Ezra Sihite & Arientha Primanita – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party appears keen to have two opposition parties join the government coalition, despite the pair

Dili – East Timor's second presidential election as a free nation will see two ex-guerrillas compete in a run-off vote on Monday, after the Nobel Prize-winning incumbent was knocked out

Margareth S.

Zakir Hussain – When The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) opposed cuts to fuel subsidies by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government, fellow coalition members angrily called for th

Unrest has broken out in East Timor, where the campaign office of presidential candidate Taur Matan Ruak has been attacked in the lead-up to the election on Monday.

Jakarta – More than 69,000 registered voters in the capital of Aceh province, Banda Aceh, did not cast their votes in the April 9 regional elections (pilkada), according to an Aceh offi

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Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The newly-endorsed Legislative Elections Law will make no significant changes for better elections and democracy in the future because it is purely based o

Robertus Wardi – Lawmakers at the House of Representatives only work earnestly when the issue at hand affects their parties' hold on power, an activist said on Thursday.

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono swore in on Thursday new members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) for the 2012-2017 ter

Ezra Sihite – A leaked speech by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from a Democratic Party meeting on April 1 seems to counter suggestions that the president followed the Golkar Party'

Ezra Sihite – The Democratic Party played down media reports of a leaked speech by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during an internal party meeting on April 1, but said it would inve

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Just a day after Monday's largely peaceful elections, protests flared up in Aceh over allegations of cheating.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The ruling Aceh Party is expected to win the gubernatorial, mayoral and district head polls due to the party's strong structure of command right down to the v

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Similar to former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal "Ical" Bakrie has a strategic role to play as kingmaker in the 2014 presi

Ezra Sihite – Golkar Party lawmakers will have to spend Rp 10 million ($1,090) each on merchandise emblazoned with party chairman Aburizal Bakrie's face as part of his 2014 presidential

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An Aceh election official has warned of potential dirty tricks and intimidation in the province's remote areas during the vote count that will follow Monday's

Michael Bachelard – One of two candidates likely to win the election in Indonesia's troubled westernmost province of Aceh has accused the other of authorising up to 13 murders in the le

Robertus Wardi – The Prosperous Justice Party's future in the pro-government coalition of parties hangs by a thread as the president was said to be busy restructuring his political alli

Bagus BT Saragih and Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The recent turmoil in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's coalition over plans to raise fuel prices may represent leverage for pol

Jakarta – Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) says all nine political parties that receive state funding have failed the tests of openness and transparency required by law, with the rulin

Arientha Primanita – Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi revived a call on Tuesday for governors to be appointed by provincial legislatures rather than through direct elections, citing

Farouk Arnaz – The security situation in Aceh remains largely trouble-free as campaigning for next Monday's elections winds down this week, police said on Tuesday.

Anita Rachman & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) are testing each other's patience as to who will be the first to

Jakarta – The new lineup of experts and activists on the General Elections Commission (KPU) approved by the House of Representatives will ensure that the KPU performs better than its la

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The foundations once underlying the political coalition supporting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration has been weakened by two coalition m

Jakarta – As the situation in Aceh becomes more volatile ahead of the local election, the National Police are stepping up security measures in the country's westernmost province.

The first-round vote of East Timor's presidential election went smoothly, defying low expectations based on the tiny country's violent history.

Anna Powles, Dili – The second round run-off of Timor Leste's presidential elections scheduled for mid-April will pit two heavyweights of the decade-old country's past resistance strugg

Ezra Sihite & Agus Triyono – The House of Representatives elected late on Thursday the seven members of the General Elections Commission, even as civil society groups continued to q

Michael Bachelard – Less than a week after Jose Ramos-Horta lost his bid for another term as president of East Timor he has decided to throw his weight behind the country's third party,

Zubaidah Nazeer – In many ways, the re-election bid of East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was doomed even before he threw his hat into the ring.

Commentator Joao Saldanha from the Timor Institute of Development in Dili has started the Republican party to run in East Timor's parliamentary elections in June.

Dili, East Timor – President Jose Ramos Horta, who campaigned tirelessly for East Timor's independence for more than two decades and then went on to help steer the new nation, conceded

Timor-Leste Friendship Network (AusTimorFN) in conjunction with Deakin University's Centre for Citizenship, Development and Human Rights (CCDHR)

Jose Ramos-Horta has lost his attempt to win a second term in office, with preliminary results from East Timor's presidential race showing he has failed to win enough support to feature

Anwar Faruqi – Early results from East Timor's presidential polls on Sunday showed the opposition Fretilin party's Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres had surged ahead with incumbent Jose Ramos

Tito Belo, Dili – East Timor kicked off a peaceful presidential election on Saturday, a critical test to whether Asia's youngest and poorest country can maintain stability and build con

Anwar Faruqi – East Timor voted Saturday in the country's second presidential election as a free nation, seen as a key test for a young democracy taking charge of its own security as UN

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – With support from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP), the Indonesian Democratic

Karlis Salna – East Timor's incumbent president, Jose Ramos-Horta, remains nonchalant even though this weekend could mark the beginning of the end for his career as one of the country's

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – While the prolonged deliberation of the bill on Yogyakarta's special status (RUUK) at the House of Representatives is expected to come to an end by the mi

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association (ICMI) to help ensure that the upcoming 2014 elections are condu