Vote-buying shadows Indonesian election

About 205 million Indonesians are registered to vote in the world's third-biggest democracy, and the country's election monitoring body, Bawaslu, has urged people to report any vote-buying. - AP

JAKARTA: When Indonesian housewife Suharti was returning home from a shopping trip, a gathering of political party workers handed her 100,000 rupiah (US$6.3) and a T-shirt -- and asked her to vote for their candidate next week.

"They told me to vote for this certain candidate but I still don't know who I'm going to vote for," the 53-year-old told AFP.