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atience and party consolidation over the last 10 years appear to being paying off for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), as various quick counts announced shortly after the legislative election on Wednesday showed the main opposition party was leading the vote tally with 19 percent.

The Jaringan Suara Rakyat (People'€™s Voice Network), for example, found that the PDI-P won in 15 provinces: Bali, North Sulawesi, West Kalimantan, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Maluku, Bangka-Belitung, Central Kalimantan, Central Java, Lampung, East Kalimantan, North Sumatra, West Java, Bengkulu and Banten. The official result will not be announced by the General Elections Commission (KPU) for another month, but with a margin of error of less than 5 percent and based on experience from past elections, the quick-count results will likely stand.

For the ruling Democratic Party, the legislative election has confirmed the opinion that voters will punish political parties that fail to live up to their expectations. The party'€™s image has been seriously tainted by corruption cases involving a significant number of its senior figures, which voters have interpreted as an act of betrayal.

Like the PDI-P, the Gerindra Party and several parties that traditionally bank on support from Muslim voters such as the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP), have benefited from the Democratic Party'€™s sharp decline.

Apart from the PDI-P'€™s success in securing victory and the commendable showing by several medium-sized parties, the organization of Wednesday'€™s election deserves praise as voting passed off nationwide in a relatively peaceful and orderly manner, without any significant violence being reported.

Many view the return to the top of an opposition party like the PDI-P as proof of a decline in election fraud. The results of this year'€™s legislative election can be said to represent the people'€™s true voice and their hopes for the next government: a legislature and government that are committed to reform and the advancement of people'€™s welfare and national interests.

The results of the election mark a start to lengthier negotiations between the different political parties. While awaiting the official vote count by the KPU, the PDI-P '€” as the party with the most votes but without an overwhelming majority '€” has to prepare to cut some political deals with other parties, especially prospective coalition partners in the House of Representatives and the government, if it wins the presidency.

Such deals will not be easy to reach, if past experience is anything to go by. A coalition, especially between parties with divergent political leanings and interests, faces a number of challenges; something that the current ruling Democratic Party has often found difficult to overcome in the last 10 years.

Like it or not, the legislative election, which represents the voice of the people, will now lead the nation into yet another term of coalition government, with all the inherent risks of political haggling and horse-trading that it contains.