A new poll has found rising support for the political party of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the lead up to elections this year, a report said yesterday.
Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, currently a minority player in his governing coalition, has strengthened its lead as the most popular party among voters, according to a poll by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) cited by the Jakarta Post daily.
The Democratic Party won 23 percent support, surging ahead of the opposition Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, which won the support of 17.1 percent of voters, it said.
The largest party in Yudhyono’s multi-party parliamentary coalition, Golkar, won 13.3 percent support.
“The Democratic party continues to widen its lead while Golkar continues to fall behind, and the PDI-P is meanwhile stagnant,” LSI director Saiful Mujani said.
An October LSI poll also found the Democratic Party in the lead, with 16.8 percent support.
“The Democratic party’s rise has been driven by the success of Yudhoyono and his administration in the eyes of the people, as the party is known as the government’s party,” Mujani said.
Yudhoyono, who is seeking re-election in the middle of this year, has seen his popularity bounce back after reversing his administration’s unpopular fuel price hikes late last year.
The president, who ran on a platform of reform and anti-corruption, needs to secure a strong showing for his party and assemble a strong coalition to take on key rivals — including Megawati — in the presidential poll.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS