SBY-VS-MEGA PRESIDENTIAL RACE UNATTRACTIVE: POLITICAL ANALYST

Jakarta, April 13 (ANTARA) - A presidential race which involves only two pairs of presidential hopefuls between Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Megawati Soekarnoputri would not be attractive, political analyst Umar S Bakry said.

"It would not be attractive because the winner could already be guessed," Bakry who is also executive director of the National Survey Institute (LSN) said here on Sunday.
Seeing the results of quick counts, however, the presidential race is most likely to present only two presidential contestants, one from the Democratic Party and the other from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), he said.
He said that the Golkar Party, which before the polls intended to nominate its general chairman Jusuf Kalla as a presidential candidate, was believed to be willing to come back to Yudhoyono.
Yudhoyono, who is chairman of the Democratic Party's board of advisory council, is the incumbent president with Kalla of the Golkar Party as the vice president.
"If PDIP is willing to nominate its presidential candidate other than Megawati, the presidential race would be more attractive because other possibilities could still happen," the LSN executive director said.
He said that Megawati was an unproductive card because voters already knew her track record. No matter with whom Megawati would pair up, it would be difficult for her to defeat Yudhoyono, he said.
He said that other presidential candidates such as Prabowo Subianto, Sri Sultan Hamengku Bowono X and Rizal Ramli would have more chances than Megawati would to defeat Yudhoyono.
On Thursday last week a legislative election was held for the 2009 - 2014 period with 38 political parties vying for 560 seats in the House of Representatives.
A quick count by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) indicated that the Democratic Party won 20.48 percent in the first place of the votes followed by PDI-P with 14.33 percent and Golkar Party with 13.95 percent in the second and third places respectively.
A presidential election will follow on July 8, 2009