Ex-general Susilo Bambang Yud-hoyono is on course for a landslide victory over President Mega-wati Sukarnoputri after Indonesia's presidential election yesterday, according to an early forecast.
Yudhoyono was predicted to win 62 percent of the votes against 38 percent for Megawati, said the Freedom Institute, the Indonesian partner of the respected Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI).
The vote was Indonesia's first direct presidential election and a milestone in its sometimes violent transition to democracy since the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998.
Security was tight for the poll which came 11 days after a suicide bomber killed nine people outside the Australian embassy -- Indonesia's third major Islamic extremist attack in two years.
But the last of three elections this year in the archipelago of 18,000 islands seemed to pass without trouble, another step forward for a country that has often witnessed turbulent transfers of power.
Paul Rowland of the NDI said even though the figures only accounted for about half the sampled votes, the final outcome would not change much.
"Those proportions are probably very accurate," Rowland said.
"Quick counts" produced by the NDI in cooperation with a local group proved extremely accurate in the two earlier elections this year.
A full official count will take weeks as polls from more than 150 million eligible voters are tallied across far-flung islands.
Yudhoyono, 55, has consistently scored nearly double the support for Megawati in opinion polls taken since a July 5 first-round vote that saw the former security minister emerge as frontrunner.
With little to distinguish the candidates' broad policies on economic reform, tackling corruption and improving security, the presidential race has largely become a personality contest favouring Yudhoyono.
He was among the first to vote at a polling station in his village of Cikeas south of Jakarta.
"With the assumption that there will be no violations in the counting of the ballots, I do believe, God willing, that I can win this election," he said, thumbs raised in the air, after casting his vote.
Voting near her private residence in south Jakarta, a typically reticent Megawati arrived several hours after balloting began. Scores of people who turned out to see her were kept waiting.
Asked if she was confident of victory, Megawati only told reporters: "Yes."
Analysts say Yudhoyono's pedigree as an ex-military man, who led operations to capture Islamic extremists blamed for the October 2002 Bali bombings and a strike on Jakarta's Marriott hotel last year, may also have helped his prospects.
Among voters turning out was a frail 83-year old Suharto, who visited a polling station in a Jakarta suburb supported by a walking cane and family members.
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