Former general leads Indonesian presidential poll

A FORMER army general took an early lead yesterday in Indonesia’s first direct presidential election.

With just a small amount of the estimated 140 million votes counted, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had 33%, incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri had 28% and another retired military general, Wiranto, was third with 22 percent.

The poll is a key step toward democracy in the world's largest Muslim nation six years after the fall of longtime dictator Suharto.

Polls have shown that Ms Megawati daughter of the country's founding father, Sukarno trailing Yudhoyono, a former security minister who resigned from her Cabinet months ago to seek her job.

But the surveys also have suggested no candidate would get more than 50 percent of the vote, meaning there would be a runoff between the two top candidates in September.

The election was a massive enterprise, with more than 155 million voters spread across 13,000 islands and three time zones. Previously, presidents were selected by parliament.

"This is a wonderful transitional from authoritarian rule to pure democratic rule," said former US President Jimmy Carter, who was observing the vote.

Election officials reported that balloting was peaceful and largely free of problems. But they said the voting got a slow start in the capital Jakarta where many soccer fans were sleeping in after staying up overnight to watch the European championship final.

Mr Yudhoyono said he was confident of at least getting into a run-off, so long as there are no widespread voting irregularities.

Ms Megawati emerged as the country's most popular politician in the tumultuous days following the ouster in 1998 of Suharto, who had ruled Indonesia since overthrowing her father in 1966. Her party won more than a third of the vote in free elections in 1999.

But in the past five years, her popularity has waned because of her failure to combat corruption or improve the economy and a perception that she is aloof and indifferent to the concerns of the people.

In contrast, ex-army general Mr Yudhoyono is a polished operator who projects stability and reassurance.

Three other candidates are also running, including Mr Wiranto, a former commander of the armed forces indicted by UN prosecutors in East Timor for crimes against humanity committed in that former Indonesian province in 1999.