The people of NTB will elect their governor next July. Currently, there are four candidates running for the election, according to official statement by KPUD (Provincial Election Committee). 

The four candidates are (in sort order) Nanang Samodra, Zainy Arony, Zainul Majdi (also known as TGH. Bajang) and Lalu Serinata. 

The United States lifted a travel warning that was set on Indonesia after several bomb attacks in 2004. Primary reason stated that security situation had been improved in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Announcing US decision, Cameron Hume, US Ambassador said on Sunday (May 25, 2008),"The government ... has disrupted, arrested and prosecuted numerous terrorist elements," Sunday. The travel warning was put in place after several bombs went off in Indonesia capital city, Jakarta, in 2000.

Six members of the Ahmadiya Islamic sect in Indonesia are seeking asylum in Australia, saying they can no longer live safely in Indonesia after being declared heretics and threatened with a government ban.

In July of 2005, Indonesia's highest council of Muslim scholars issued a fatwa declaring the Ahmadiya sect of Islam heretical because they said the sect's beliefs challenged Mohammad's status as the last prophet.

Since then attacks against Ahmadis have increased.In 2006 their mosques and houses were destroyed on the island of Lombok, and now six members of the group displaced by that violence have approached the Australian Consulate in Bali seeking asylum in Australia.