Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will lead the country for another five years, starting in October, after a massive victory in national elections last night.

Unofficial counting across a host of independent media and political polling organisations had Dr Yudhoyono and his offsider, former Bank Indonesia chief Boediono, pulling in up to 60 per cent of the vote across the country.

In second place were former president Megawati Sukarnoputri and her running mate, retired general Prabowo Subianto, with about 25 per cent of the vote.

The Golkar party's team, Vice-President Jusuf Kalla and retired army general Wiranto, did not look like doing any better than about 15 per cent, based on the provisional figures. The result means there will be no need for a second-round run-off vote.

Ms Megawati had argued that democracy would be better served if the contest went to a second round, although Mr Kalla had said in his campaign that a single round would be a good cost saving in the current economic climate.

Dr Yudhoyono and Mr Kalla face an uneasy three months of seeing out their current term in government, particularly with the latter likely to be the target of bloodletting in his own party. An extraordinary Golkar national congress is expected to be called, with Mr Kalla unlikely to remain head of the party.

However, the Yudhoyono-Kalla administration, as well as the 550-seat national parliament, will not be dissolved until early October, ahead of the inauguration shortly afterwards of the new one.

Dr Yudhoyono's private residence near Bogor, south of Jakarta, was swamped by excited wellwishers and members of his campaign team yesterday afternoon, but the former army general refused to claim victory immediately.

Instead, he thanked Indonesians for voting for all three sets of candidates, and praised his opponents, saying he would await official results from the electoral commission. "From the survey organisations, the results, thank God, favour us and our fellow campaigners," he said.

"But we will continue to await the results from the General Election Commission when they are disclosed to the entire people of Indonesia."

This could take several days.

He urged his Democrat Party supporters to be measured in their joy, so as not to offend the other candidates. There was a veiled warning, however, in his statement "to Ms Mega and Jusuf Kalla – let us build a culture of mutual respect. What's important is that the next five years are better."

In the central Java city of Yogyakarta, future vice-president Boediono expressed happiness at the early numbers but warned Indonesians to wait for official results and said the orderly way the elections had been conducted was impressive.

"His is the victory for the people of Indonesia," the urbane Australian- and US-educated university professor said.

The often-fiery General Prabowo, speaking at Ms Megawati's South Jakarta home, described the quick-count figures as "baseless" and "wrong".

Voting went remarkably smoothly across the country, with just over 176 million voters registered in the 33 provinces.

Although there were criticisms by the Megawati-Prabowo and Kalla-Wiranto teams of the accuracy of the electoral rolls, this issue was largely defused on Monday with a court decision allowing more people to vote.

Criticism was levelled at several television stations that began broadcasting quick-count results before the polls had closed, with electoral commissioner IGusti Putu Arta warning that this could affect voting patterns.