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JAKARTA: Indonesians will vote in presidential elections Wednesday with opinion polls showing incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono holding all the aces despite criticism of his market-friendly economic policies.
The ex-general is hoping to win a clear majority and avoid a run-off in September after his centrist Democratic Party tripled its vote in April's general elections to become the largest party in parliament.
Yudhoyono, known in Indonesia by his initials, SBY, won a landslide victory over Democratic Party of Struggle leader and ex-president Megawati Sukarnoputri to become the country's first directly elected head of state in 2004.
If the 59-year-old wins he will be the first president to serve consecutive terms in the "Reformasi" era of democratic transition that began with the fall of the Suharto government in 1998.
"In theory, the significance of this election is in the context of our efforts to consolidate democracy," Indonesian Institute of Sciences political analyst Ikrar Nusa Bhakti said.
"In practice, it's a battle of egos."
Trailing the president in most opinion polls is Megawati, the 62-year-old daughter of Indonesia's independence hero, Sukarno, and the sentimental figurehead of the anti-Suharto movement in the late 1990s.
Also making a long-shot bid is Yudhoyono's vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, 67, a rich businessman and the wily, wise-cracking chairman of the Golkar party, Suharto's former political vehicle.
Should he win, the Democrats' performance in April gives "SBY" greater authority to hand-pick his cabinet and make good on promises to stamp out corruption and maintain economic growth.
Highlights of his first term included a peace deal with Acehnese separatists which ended a bitter 30-year conflict, multiple high-profile arrests of corrupt officials and steady economic growth despite the global financial crisis.
But he also came under fire from civil society groups for caving in to calls from hardline Islamists for restrictions on the minority Ahmadiyah sect, and for backing a sweeping anti-pornography law despite broad opposition.
His choice of respected economist and former central bank chief Boediono as his running mate has also left him open to opposition charges of "neo-liberalism", a label he rejects.
"We're certainly not neo-lib. A neo-lib government doesn't stress the importance of the government's role and good governance," Democratic Party economic advisor Darwin Saleh said.
The presence of ex-military men in all three leading campaigns is evidence, analysts say, that old military elites remain powerful in Indonesia 11 years after the fall of general Suharto, who died of natural causes last year.
During months of public negotiations over power-sharing deals, Megawati and Kalla both chose former generals with records of human rights abuses from the Suharto era as their running mates.
Megawati teamed up with notorious special forces ex-commander Prabowo Subianto, who is accused of serious abuses including the kidnapping of democracy activists in the late 1990s.
Kalla chose former military chief Wiranto, who has been indicted by United Nations prosecutors for crimes against humanity over East Timor's bloody independence referendum in 1999.
"One thing we need to emphasise here is that the world's third largest democracy isn't necessarily the third best," University of Indonesia political analyst Makmur Keliat said.
Analysts said irregularities and disorganisation that marred the legislative elections should not be allowed to cast any shadow over the results of Wednesday's vote.
"There are still chances of vote buying on the eve or in the morning (of the election). I hope there'll be a run-off so this election can be more democratic," Bhakti said.
A second round will be held in September if no candidate gains a clear majority in Wednesday's vote.
- AFP/yt
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