(Updates with Yudhoyono quotes, casting vote)
JAKARTA (AFP)--Indonesians voted Wednesday in their second
direct presidential election since the fall of the Suharto
dictatorship, with ex-general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono widely
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 U.S., after its violent birth at the end of three decades of
dictatorship in 1998.
The first polls to open were in the resource-rich eastern
province of Papua, and they were set to close on the northern tip
of western Sumatra island at 0600 GMT. About 170 million people
were eligible to vote across 17,000 islands.
There were no reports of violence disrupting voting.
"We hope the presidential elections will be carried out
peacefully...and democratically throughout Indonesia," Yudhoyono
told reporters in Bogor after driving himself to a polling station
in a golf cart labeled "VVIP."
With about 30 million people living below the poverty line,
promises of higher wages and more jobs were central to all three
candidates' campaigns, well ahead of religious and security
issues.
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, where a separatist
rebellion has simmered for decades.
"We suspect that this group wanted to disrupt the elections,"
Mimika town police chief Godhelp Mansnembra said, adding that no
one was injured.
Megawati, who has complained over incomplete voter lists and a
shortage of polling stations, was the first candidate to cast her
ballot.
"This election should be carried out in a fair and objective
manner so the president has legitimacy from the people," the
ex-president and daughter of independence hero Sukarno told
reporters in Jakarta.
Yudhoyono's popularity is based on five years of steady economic
growth in Southeast Asia's biggest 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, the
highest in the region.
Despite his popularity, critics have accused the president of
caving in to Islamist extremists on tolerance issues, such as a
controversial anti-pornography law and restrictions on minority
groups.
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.
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.
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.
Megawati teamed up with notorious special forces ex-commander
Prabowo Subianto, while Kalla chose former military chief Wiranto,
accused of atrocities in East Timor in 1999.
The presence of Suharto-era generals on all three tickets shows
the lingering power of the old military elite in Indonesia,
analysts said.