Jakarta – Indonesian Home Minister Syarwan Hamid on Saturday installed the head of an ancient local royal family as the governor of Yogyakarta, the first governor in the country to be spontaneously elected, newspaper reports said.

Hamengkubuwono X (the 10th), the Sultan of Yogyakarta, was elected by acclaim in August during a mass rally held by the territory of some 10,000 people. The government in Jakarta at first ruled the spontaneous appointment as against the law, which led to protests and defiance in the city, which is known as the cultural heart of Java and which has special autonomous status. Public leaders and officials then threatened to hold a referendum to support the appointment.

The special status of Yogyakarta was awarded by presidential decree in 1950 for its role in the struggle for independence from the Dutch colonial authorities. Under the decree, issued by then president Sukarno, Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, the head of Yogyakarta's main royal house and father of the current sultan, was named the first governor of the territory.

But a 1974 decree by the government of former president Suharto stipulated that all governors in the country should be chosen by the local parliament from a list of five central government-approved candidates.

Hamid later backed down and agreed to legitimise the appointment as all five factions of the local parliament gave the sultan their support. "There should have been five (candidates) but it turns out that all five of them are the same (candidate), so be it... we agree on the sole candidate and we will legitimise it," Hamid said.

The popular Sultan whose 18th century palace dominates the city, has retained moral authority there. A pro-reform figure and a member of the country's highest legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly, he is the eldest of 16 sons of Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, who served once as Suharto's vice president.