PDI-P claims victory in Indonesian polls

[JAKARTA] The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle claimed victory in parliamentary elections, even as voting estimates showed its presidential candidate Joko Widodo will need to align with other parties to stay in the race.

Puan Maharani, head of the central executive board of the party, known as PDI-P, said in a television broadcast that early results showed it had won. With 90 per cent of the vote counted, PDI-P had 19.8 per cent, based on a tally by Lingkaran Survei Indonesia (LSI) shown on TVOne. LSI has monitors at polling stations during the vote count, with final results not due from the General Elections Commission, or KPU, until May 9.

Golkar, the party of tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, 67, had 14.6 per cent of the vote and Gerindra, whose candidate for president is former general Prabowo Subianto, 62, had 11.8 per cent, according to LSI. The Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stood at 9.7 per cent, it said. The country's five Islamic-based national parties looked to have grabbed a combined 32 per cent share of the national vote, performing slightly better than in the last parliamentary election in 2009, a…