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Bomb shatters calm around Indonesian elections

By Matthew Moore, Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
July 27, 2004

After a remarkably peaceful election campaign, a bomb exploded inside the headquarters of Indonesia's Election Commission yesterday just as the members were preparing to announce the results of the July 5 presidential poll.

The small bomb exploded outside the women's toilets, breaking windows and destroying a door but not injuring any of the hundreds of people who were in the building awaiting the announcement.

The bombing delayed the announcement of the result.

A commission member, Chusnul Mariah, was upstairs in a meeting when she heard the explosion below.

"It was not that loud, and the chairman of the commission, Nazarudin Syamsudin, ordered us to remain calm," she said.

Police removed everyone from the building while members of the bomb squad inspected the site and began questioning witnesses.

The Jakarta police chief, Firman Gani, told Detik news website that someone had phoned the commission to warn of the bomb at 12.30pm and police conducted a search and found a box wrapped in newspaper near the toilet about 1pm.

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They called the bomb squad but the device exploded before they arrived, he said. Although security is tight at many of Jakarta's public buildings, there are no searches at the Election Commission office.

With virtually all the vote counted, the winner is certain to be Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, of the new Democrat Party, with 33 per cent. He will face the runner-up, President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who won 26 per cent, in a deciding ballot on September 20.

However, Wiranto, the candidate of the Golkar party of the former president Soeharto, has already rejected the result and said that he plans to take his case to the Constitutional Court, which will accept challenges from today.

Mr Yudhoyono said that the explosion had interrupted the security of the elections, and he called on the Government to ensure security did not degenerate before the second round. He has predicted a breakdown in security before it.