He's 54 years old, somewhat heavyset, with a pudgy face. To a startling number of Indonesians disillusioned with politics, the face of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is one they believe they can trust.
Analysts say it could soon be the face of Indonesia's next president. Opinion polls give the retired general – popularly known as SBY – a massive lead ahead of his rivals for the July 5 presidential election.
"Personal charms are a very important fact people consider and SBY has that: not emotional, and people see him as sincere and trustworthy. His face says so," said Daniel Sparringa, a sociology lecturer at Airlangga University.
Yudhoyono resigned as President Megawati Sukarnoputri's security minister less than a month before the April 5 general election. He quit after the president's husband, Taufik Kiemas, accused him of acting like a child for complaining about being shut out of cabinet meetings.
His Democrat Party, contesting its first election, went on to win 7.45 percent of the vote thanks to the backing of millions of disaffected Megawati supporters.
Opinion polls have given Yudhoyono between 41 and 47 percent support, more than twice as much as his nearest rival. If no candidate wins at least 50 percent on July 5, the top two candidates face a run-off on September 20.
"Many Indonesians want a military man to lead the country. Second, he is considered moderate. Third, he was seen as humiliated by Megawati," Amir Santoso, a lecturer in politics at the University of Indonesia, said in explaining Yudhoyono's popularity. "SBY knows how to show he is one of the people," Sparringa said.
Still, he is not always an electrifying speaker. On the opening day of the election campaign, Yudhoyono read to reporters a 50-minute speech outlining his vision of the country. When he was finished, he wiped his face with a handkerchief.
The speech reached out to the country's downtrodden with dramatic promises to cut unemployment and poverty while battling corruption. "We come with clean thoughts, in the spirit of peace, and with an offer of enthusiasm, resolve, hard work, along with concepts and steps for a safer, more peaceful Indonesia, one more just and democratic and prosperous," he said.
H.S. Dillon, executive director of pro-reform group Partnership, said Yudhoyono would create an inner cabinet of technocrats. Sparringa said the former general would run government "more professionally, rather than politically".
Yudhoyono will come first in the first round and then battle Megawati, retired general Wiranto – SBY's one-time military boss – or former Muslim leader Amien Rais in the second round, according to Santoso.
It will not be an easy victory, said Dillon, noting the sudden reopening of a long-dormant investigation into the July 27, 1996, army-backed attack on Megawati supporters in Jakarta. Yudhoyono was the Jakarta military's chief of staff at the time of the incident, which sparked riots that killed five. He has denied prior knowledge of it.
Dillon said it remains unclear how Yudhoyono will do in heavily-populated Central and East Java, strongholds of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and of the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). NU support is divided between Megawati and Wiranto.
Yudhoyono is also battling a whisper campaign that his running mate, Yusuf Kalla, is anti-ethnic Chinese and that Yudhoyono himself supports Islamic law.
An intensification of those rumours could push worried ethnic Chinese and Christian minority voters back to Megawati, Sparringa said. "I think what will be critical is the last week before the election," he said.