From the Indonesian city where Barack Obama spent part of his childhood to Hong Kong's bars and a Dublin pub, US Democrats abroad grabbed their first chance to vote in "Super Tuesday" primaries.Voting for expat Democrats is taking place across the world until February 12, as well as online, with a total of 11 votes at stake for the Democratic Party convention that will eventually choose its candidate.
The venues are about as far removed from formal political institutions as possible, from pubs and cafes to bookshops and doughnut stores.
In Jakarta, where Obama spent part of his youth living and going to school in Menteng, a suburb of decaying colonial grandeur, Democrats handed him a win over Hillary Clinton in the first result announced, party officials said.
Seventy-five percent of nearly 100 votes cast by expatriate Americans just past midnight (1700 GMT Monday) went to Obama and 25 percent went to Clinton, Democrats Abroad officials here said.
Robert Lamont, a 53-year-old USAID worker in Jakarta, said he chose Obama for his combination of charisma and conciliatory foreign policy approach.
It is the first time Democrats living overseas have had the chance to vote in person for their own delegates. The Republican Party, in contrast, does not elect convention delegates from abroad.
In Bangkok, hundreds of people went to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand to cast their ballots. It seems Obama's message of change has a strong global span. Get out there and let your voice be heard people. GO VOTE!
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