Agencies in Jakarta – President Bacharuddin Habibie's election bid appeared to falter yesterday as demonstrators launched another day of violent protest and opposition lawmakers condemned a speech that defended his troubled 16-month tenure.

With five days to go before the People's Consultative Assembly is to pick a new president, parliamentary factions took turns giving their views on Mr Habibie's record.

About 5,000 protesters threw rocks and petrol bombs at riot police and blocked Jakarta's main avenue with commandeered buses and makeshift barricades for much of the day.

Security personnel stormed Atmajaya University, using tear-gas to flush out protesters before beating them. Some fired warning shots.

Rocks, bottles and other debris littered roads near the parliament building. Ambulance officers said more than 20 people were injured. Police said about 70 people had been injured since clashes began on Thursday.

"We reject Habibie. He has corrupted the country. We will fight him until he is tried in court," said one protester.

Mr Habibie made an impassioned plea on Thursday night to the 700-member assembly, asking it to return him to office on Wednesday.

In a nationally televised debate last night, speakers from parliamentary factions took turns commenting bluntly on Mr Habibie's handling of the economy, political system, East Timor and separatist tensions as he listened and took notes.

His speech was formally rejected by the largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, led by presidential rival Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Party lawmaker Julvan Lindan said Mr Habibie had "shamelessly" claimed credit for reforms pushed through by the students and the people.

Muhaimin Iskandar, of the National Awakening Party, said Mr Habibie's handling of East Timor had resulted in "tragedies ... exodus, acts of killing, scorched earth and the possibility of a civil war".

Mr Habibie's own Golkar Party questioned why he had ever offered East Timor self-determination and why the investigation into former president Suharto's alleged corruption had stopped, tackled him on the Bank Bali bribery scandal and attacked the weak upholding of human rights.

"One of the roots of the problems that have triggered the social crisis and the crisis of confidence is that the supremacy of the law ... has yet to be upheld," the Golkar representative, Priyo Budi Santoso, said. If legislators reject the President's speech, he will have little choice but to withdraw his nomination for the presidency.

Although he has been president since May 1998, Mr Habibie has never been elected as the head of state. He took over from Mr Suharto, his one-time mentor, who was driven from power by the same student groups that are now back on the streets of Jakarta.