Intimidation, bribes, thuggery - Indonesia goes to the polls

Two wives slug it out for a district chief office seat left vacant by their polygamous politician husband. A sex kitten lingerie model launches her campaign for a deputy district chief job wearing high heals and oversized sunglasses. Molotov cocktail-throwing rioters attack a legislative building, injuring 19 people and torching 22 vehicles, after a religious leader they supported suspiciously failed a mandatory health exam for candidates. And all this occurred in just one province, East Java, within the past three weeks.

Across the rest of Indonesia, there are reports of thugs intimidating local election officials, names missing from local voter rolls, vote buying, and the wives and children of outgoing incumbents running so they can keep control of their lucrative posts within the family.

Welcome to regional elections in Indonesia, the world's third-largest - and perhaps messiest - democracy.

It was exhausting enough that Indonesia held two separate general elections last year for its national, provincial, and district legislatures, as well as for president.

There were around 171 million eligible voters and 30,000 candidates. The hangover from those tense months hadn't even faded when it was time to begin holding 244 elections for provincial and district executive seats beginning in May.

Indonesia has arguably undergone the world's most dramatic and impressive transformation from authoritarian rule to democracy, after the forced resignation of the late dictator Suharto in May 1998. But 12 years to the month later, some are wondering if the country has gone too far and that its open democracy, which includes direct elections all the way down to village chief, is more a curse than a blessing.