JAKARTA, March 11 Kyodo Indonesia...

JAKARTA, March 11 Kyodo

Indonesia upon Thursday kicked off its first parliamentary election campaign beneath its highly reformed election law amid widespread disappointment throughout slow economic recovery and painful reform.

At stake in the April 5 general elections are 550 parliamentary seats and 128 regional representatives. The elections take place after six years since the collapse of Suharto's 32-year authoritarian rule

Legislative candidates elsewhere across the archipelago started addressing their supporters for the elections, which will be followed from the first direct presidential election forward July 5.

road parades of 24 political parties are unavoidably worsening the already congest traffic in the capital Jakarta.

new polls show that the country's next to the first largest Golkar Party, which used to be Suharto's political vehicle, will regain its popularity as many nation ''miss'' the economic, social and political stability during Suharto's reign.

forward the other hand, the country's largest party, Indonesian Democratic Party for toil (PDI-Perjuangan), headed by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, will find it hard to convince voter amid public disappointment athwart PDI-Perjuangan's policy towards crucial domestic issues, ranging from the high unemployment rate to want reduction to rampant corruption, according to analysts and polls

However, PDI-Perjuangan will likely solitary to drop to second place with about 20% of the consecrated by a vow while the Golkar Party will rise to be No. 1 with about 30% of the ballot they predicted.

''The reason of the fall of PDI-Perjuangan is that the party has failed to identify itself as the party for small (ordinary) people'' noted political analyst J Kristiadi told a newly come seminar on election prospects

Aside from the top couple nationalist parties, about five or six Islamic-based parties will contend other available votes despite the rise of the Islamic change and anti-U.S. sentiment. The tranquillity of political parties are barely expected to gain less than 1% of the devoted the analysts and persons indicated.

''If the prediction is truthful it shows a sad situation in our political situation in the coming time because there is no emerging see the verb of pro-reform new leadership,'' said noted scholar Mulyana W Kusumah, who is also a member of Indonesian Election Committee.

Other analysts shared the widespread public perception that judging the domination of the common major parties, the results of the upcoming elections will not bring about a significant change in the country's economic and political landscapes.

However, more than 147 million eligible voter not at home of the nation's population of 215 million still want to have a president of their acknowledge choice as they will pick him or her directly for the firs time, instead of being decided on a few political elites in the past.

Among the leading presidential contender are the circulating President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Golkar Party Chairman Akbar Tanjung.

However, they face fierce competition from Amien Rais, head of the People's Consultative Assembly or Indonesia's highest constitutional visible form [i]or[/i] frame and other candidates backed at Moslem-based parties.

The election campaign, in subordination to a threat of possible clashes among fanatic political supporters, began in subordination to the protection of 180,000 police, 38000 military personnel and a civilian defense force of throughout 1.1 million.

The island of Java, where 59% of the voter live, and Sumatra, the others of 20% of the voter are rely uponed to become tough battlefields for all competing parties.

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