Voters reject Megawati in Indonesian direct poll

The results were based on the votes of about one per cent of the 153 million people eligible to take part in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Former armed forces chief Wiranto was third with 24 per cent, while two other candidates were further behind.

Unofficial reports put turnout at more than 80 per cent. If no contender wins more than 50 per cent of the vote, the two leading candidates will go head-to-head in a September run-off.

Opinion polls ahead of poll day showed Yudhoyono with a 20-30 per cent lead over his four rivals and a close battle for second place between Megawati, Wiranto and moderate Muslim leader A. Rais.

Megawati — the daughter of Indonesia’s founding President, Sukarno — proved unable to jump-start a sluggish economy and clean up rampant corruption during three years in power, which have seen a wave of militant Muslim bomb attacks and separatist violence.

In the Jakarta precinct of Menteng, Suharto — the autocrat who ruled for 32 years before stepping down amid student-led demonstrations in 1998 — cast his vote early.

‘‘This is a wonderful transition from authoritarian rule to purely democratic rule in just six years and the people of Indonesia are to be congratulated,’’ said former US President Jimmy Carter, one of hundreds of international poll monitors.

Voters appeared to be attracted to Yudhoyono, who unlike Wiranto — the other former general in the race — was untainted by a human rights scandal during his military career.

Final results will not be announced until July 26, but a group of election watchdogs was expected to release a ‘‘quick count’’ of results from representative precincts late on Monday. —(Reuters)