INDONESIA: Partial Returns

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At a post-election diplomatic reception in Djakarta last week, a Western newsman remarked to Nationalist Party Leader Ali Sastroamidjojo: "I reckon you are pleased with the way things have turned out." Retorted the ex-Premier with a smile: "I reckon you're not."

That day's returns showed the Nationalists leading in Indonesia's first elections. The Communists, their supporters in power until a new regime took over last August and showed refreshing friendliness to the Western democracies, were running a strong third. As the first ballots were counted, it looked as though the Nationalists and Communists together were going to capture a majority of Congress' 260 seats and return Indonesia to an antiWestern, Red-tinged course.

But as time passed, returns from outlying islands changed the picture. With about 27 million of an estimated 30 million votes counted at week's end, the totals—all highly unofficial—still put the Nationalists on top with 8,001,750 votes. But the Communists were in fourth place, while the strictly anti-Communist Moslem parties, the Masjumi and the Moslem Teachers, had enough between them to suggest a slight majority for Indonesia's anti-Communist parties. Sastroamidjojo still seemed likely to win the premiership, but the anti-Communist bloc had a good chance of playing a role in his Cabinet and his policies.