Officials expect more than 140 parties to register for the June elections, although they say only about 30 will qualify for the contest. You have a free press. You have multiple parties that will have observers all over the country. Now, even Golkar officials concede that the most likely outcome of the June voting will be a coalition government formed by two or more parties. But he said that Golkar expected to get ''much support'' in the elections, and would be ready work with other parties to form a workable coalition.
Opposition leaders express similar sentiments.
But the historical precedents are not encouraging. In 1955, political squabbling intensified after an election in which no party won a big enough majority to form a government in its own right. The economy deteriorated. Then President Sukarno and the military took control, ushering in a long period of ''guided democracy,'' a euphemism for the authoritarian rule that Mr. Suharto continued.