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Indonesian president’s party wins elections

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The secular party of Indonesia’s president tripled its share of the vote in parliamentary elections and support for religious parties nose-dived - a sign of how even devout believers in the world’s most populous Muslim nation are delinking faith and politics.

Many say they’ve had enough of unpopular laws and edicts pushed through by hard-liners, regulating women’s dress and banning everything from smoking to yoga.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic party won the lion’s share of the vote in last month’s parliamentary poll - 21 percent, according to final results released over the weekend - buoyed by his popularity and reform agenda.

That puts him in an even stronger position to win a second, five-year term when Indonesian’s pick their new president in July.

He faces a changing political landscape in this secular nation of 235 million, 90 percent of whom are Muslim.

Though people are becoming more religious at home, that has not translated at the ballot box.

Support for the main Islamist parties in the April 9 polls declined from 39 percent five years ago to just 24 percent, largely because modern, urban voters view them as intolerant.

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