(Updates with quotes from official, voter, Megawati voting; adds
background)
JAKARTA (AFP)--Indonesians voted Wednesday in their second
direct presidential election since the fall of the Suharto
dictatorship, with ex-general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expected to
win a second term.
Opinion polls suggest Yudhoyono could avoid a run-off in
September by beating opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri and
outgoing Vice President Jusuf Kalla with a clear majority in the
first round.
Victory would give the mild-mannered 59-year-old - who likes to
write love songs in his spare time - a clear mandate to speed up
bureaucratic reform and fight corruption in the world's most
populous Muslim-majority nation.
He would also be the first president to serve consecutive terms
at the helm of the world's third-biggest democracy, behind India
and the United States, after its violent birth at the end of three
decades of dictatorship in 1998.
The first polls to open were in the eastern province of Papua,
and voting was set to follow across the country with the final
ballots closing at 0600 GMT.
"I voted for a president who will bring wealth and health to the
people, and that person is SBY," 31-year-old shop assistant Laica
said, using Yudhoyono's nickname, after casting her ballot in
Papua.
Almost 250,000 police have been deployed across the vast
archipelago of 234 million people to safeguard polling stations,
especially in restive Papua, where violence marred legislative
polls in April.
Security forces fired on a group of people who attacked a police
post and set three vehicles on fire before dawn near the massive
U.S.-owned Freeport-McMoran (FCX) mine in Papua, police said.
"We suspect that this group wanted to disrupt the elections, but
we are still investigating who they are," Mimika town police chief
Godhelp Mansnembra said, adding that no one was injured.
Megawati, who has complained about allegedly incomplete voter
lists and a shortage of polling stations, was the first of the
three candidates to cast her ballot.
Appearing with her husband at a polling booth in Jakarta, the
ex-president and daughter of independence hero Sukarno dipped her
finger in blue ink and posed for photographers, but said nothing to
reporters.
Speaking to provincial governors Tuesday, Yudhoyono called for a
"smooth presidential election that is truly honest, fair, direct,
free and secret."
Yudhoyono's popularity is based on five years of steady economic
growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy; slow but even-handed
reform of the bureaucracy and security forces; and a tough
anti-corruption drive.
He has weathered the global financial meltdown, with strong
domestic demand underpinning growth at around 4% this year.
Despite his popularity, Yudhoyono has accused by critics of
caving in to Islamist extremists over tolerance issues, such as a
controversial anti-pornography law and restrictions on the minority
Ahmadiyah sect.
However, his government has worked closely with the U.S. and
Australia to crack down on Al Qaeda-inspired fanatics behind the
2002 Bali bombings and other atrocities.
Three of the Bali bombers were executed by firing squad last
year, and hundreds of other terrorist suspects have been rounded
up.
Security issues have barely rated in the election debate, which
has been fought over issues such as corruption, food prices and
Indonesia's response to the pressures of globalization.
Megawati and Kalla have both touted a brand of economic
nationalism in response to what they have called Yudhoyono's
"neo-liberalism," vowing to protect jobs from foreign competition
and investment.
The presence of Suharto-era generals on all three tickets shows
the lingering power of the old military elite in Indonesia,
analysts said.
Megawati teamed up with notorious special forces ex-commander
Prabowo Subianto as her running mate, while Kalla chose former
military chief Wiranto, who has been indicted by U.N. prosecutors
for crimes against humanity involved in East Timor's bloody
independence referendum in 1999.
Yudhoyono, who was a senior general under Suharto but emerged
from that regime with his reputation intact, chose Western-educated
economist and former central bank chief Boediono as his
vice-presidential candidate.