SURABAYA (East Java) Aug 22 – US consul general in Surabaya Joaquin Monserrate said Indonesia is ahead of the United States in presidential elections.
Monserrate said Barack Obama was named US president in 2008 in an election participated by only 131,071,135 voters, Indonesia’s Antara news agency
reported.”Here 133,577,277 people took part in the July 9 presidential election. It was a world record,” he told a gathering attended by community and religious leaders, government officials and academicians in the East Java capital on Thursday.
The figures indicate that more people in Indonesia believe in democracy than in the United States, Monserrate said.”It was said that Indonesians were not ready yet for democracy. Some even said democracy would not work in Indonesia, but the fact is there were 133 million more people who gave their votes for a democratic system,” he said.
Monserrate said he hoped the US would regain its record in the next presidential election in 2016.
The consul general spoke at the gathering hours before the Constitutional Court confirmed the Election Commission decision’s naming Jakarta governor Joko Widodo and his running mate Jusuf Kalla as president and vice president-elect.
Joko or better known as Jokowi and Jusuf will be sworn in as president and vice president for a five-year term.At Thursday’s gathering, Monserrate introduced six new diplomats assigned with the US Consulate General in Surabaya.
-BERNAMA
