Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – The incumbent head of Boven Digoel district in Papua is leading the early vote count in his bid for re-election, despite being detained in a Jakarta cell on charges of embezzling Rp 49 billion ($5.4 million) from the district budget.

After 80 percent of the votes had been counted for the Aug.31 election, Yusak Yaluwo, who is a member of the ruling Democratic Party, was leading the other candidates after securing 44 percent of the vote. His closest contender, Xaverius Songmen, had 32 percent.

Indonesian law allows candidates who are charged with a criminal offense to run for office. Christianus Guam, the head of the Boven Digoel Elections Commission (KPUD), said on Wednesday that his office had already counted the votes from 12 of the 15 subdistricts.

"Yusak leads the count in 10 of those subdistricts," he said. "We expect to have the tallies from the remaining three subdistricts in by Thursday for a final announcement."

Yusak, who was arrested in April by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for allegedly embezzling funds from the regional budget, was also nominated by the Democrats to run for governor of South Papua, a new administrative region that is set to be inaugurated later this year.

He faces three counts of corruption that could land him a life sentence if convicted. One of the allegations against him is that he conspired to allow timber companies to log in protected forests in the district.

Papua is the last major source of the highly-valued merbau tree in Indonesia, and illegal loggers are believed to be moving to Papua from forests in Kalimantan and Sumatra because of lax enforcement of the area.

The KPK previously said that a Yusak election win would not affect the investigation. The country's election laws, which have long been criticized, allow for Yusak to serve as district head even if he is convicted of the graft charges.