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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s two opponents in last week’s presidential election on Friday appealed for politics not be linked in any way to the Jakarta bombings earlier in the day.

They were reacting to Yudhoyono’s long televised address from the State Palace in which he claimed the bombings were part of a terrorist action connected to the results of the presidential election, which unofficial quick-counts showed as an overwhelming victory to Yudhoyono.

“According to information from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), a plan existed to cause violence and break the law in response to the presidential election result,” he told a national audience.

Presidential candidate and Vice President Jusuf Kalla said later that he condemned the bombings but said they had nothing to do with the elections, as suggested by Yudhoyono.

“So, you’re suggesting that Megawati [Sukarnoputri] and I did it? No, obviously not,” he said.

Kalla said previous bombings in Indonesia suggested that Friday’s explosions at two Jakarta hotels were long-planned acts of terror.

“Yet the election results were only known last week,” he said.

Kalla suggested terrorists may have been able to carry out the attacks because the National Police and BIN were engaged in providing security for the presidential elections.

“Maybe the police and BIN focused too much on the elections and gave less attention to the possibility of terrorist threats and so were unable to prevent the attacks from happening,” he said.

Separately, Megawati Sukarnoputri, offering her condolences to the victims of the tragedy, told a news conference the bombings were a crime against humanity that must be punished severely.

She then urged that no one, especially Yudhoyono and his government, engage in political maneuvering on the bombings.

Referring to a statement by Yudhoyono in his televised address that political enemies were behind the bombings and that he also was one of their intended targets, Megawati said: “Please, do not exploit this tragedy for political reasons.”

“If [Yudhoyono] has said that someone wants to kill him and the threat is true, then why doesn’t he arrest these people?” she said.

Meanwhile, Megawati’s running mate, Prabowo Subianto, also called on the public not to politicize the incident or link it with the presidential election.

There should be no divisions caused by “this barbaric incident,” he said.

“We should calm down, and try to raise the people’s spirits.”

Prabowo said he was ready to support the government, whoever led it, despite his criticism of Yudhoyono’s policies during the campaign.

“There’s nothing wrong in criticizing the government. But it has never crossed our mind to resort to [bombing]. We use political strategies,” Prabowo said.

People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) executive leader Fachrul Razi called on people not to link the bombings with his team’s action in alleging fraud had been committed during the election.

“We’re ready to accept our loss, but election manipulation should still be revealed,” he said.

Syamsuddin Haris, a political analyst from the Indonesian Science of Institute (LIPI), said the bombing reflected negligence on behalf of BIN and the police in preventing terrorist threats.

Syamsuddin said BIN had only focused on the elections and that this had weakened its monitoring of antiterrorism.

However, he said he doubted the bombing, as speculated by Yudhoyono, occurred because of the competition between candidates during the presidential election.

“It has nothing to do with the election. I think the bombing occurred purely because of the negligence of the police, which the terrorists took advantage of,” he said.