Indonesia, world's first muslim country, opened polls

Indonesia, the world's first Muslim country in number of inhabitants, is voting legislative in elections. The first economic power of Southeast Asia is facing economic problems, with secessionist disorders and corruption scandals, but sees the prospect of a looming political alternation.

About 186 million voters are called to the polls in the country counting 250 million inhabitants, spread across a huge archipelago formed of 17500 islands. The Sunni Muslims are forming 87% of the population, followed by Christians, 10%, the rest being Hindus and Buddhists. The former Dutch colony,  won its independence in 1945, having Ahmed Suharto as a national hero, who founded the veritable politic dynasty, such as Gandhi in India.

The favourite in the elections is the Indonesian Democratic Party election, the main opposition party. And its leader, Joko Widodo, the governor of Jakarta, is regarded as the winner in the presidential elections scheduled in three months.

Joko Widodo is the representative of a new generation of politicians in Indonesia and appears as a protector of the poor.

Through the number of electors, Indonesia is considered the third democracy in the world, 12 parties being expected to be present in the elections. They can be divided roughly into two camps. On the one hand, the secular nationalist parties, which includes Joko Widodo's party and the Democratic Party currently in power, compromised due to corruption, and, on the other hand, the five Muslim parties, from which some moderate ones but others going as far as to extremism and followers of the Islamic law, Char.

Indonesia has shown an increase of 13% before the economic crisis, but in 2013 the growth was only of 5.7%. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the current president, in power since 2004, can not compete in these elections because he already has two mandates.