Jakarta – Indonesia's election commission Monday postponed the start of the national count of the results of landmark elections, because the tallies in many provinces were either disputed or incomplete.

"The vote count at the national level is postponed because according to reports from members of the commission in the provinces, there are still issues of violations which need to be settled first," election commission chairman Rudini said.

Election officials had been due to start compiling a national picture of the approved and checked results from each province.

Under the election process, results from the polling stations are first validated at the sub-district level, then at the district and provincial levels, before being counted again at national level.

However, election committees in several provinces have been calling for either a recount or fresh polls in some of subdistricts amid allegations of cheating, mistakes and fraud.

Many press reports had said the nationwide results of the polls would be announced on June 21. But by midday Monday only just over half of the estimated 112 million votes cast on June 7 had been counted.

"The people should not be under the misconception that today is the finals of the national vote count. It is only the scheduled start for the count at national level," Rudini said, adding the decision on a new date would be made by the commission.

Jacob Tobing, the head of the separate Indonesian Election Comittee said so far only seven of Indonesia's 27 provinces had completed their vote counts and their results were not contested.

Under the electoral laws, the announcement of the results from the provinces had to be made simultaneously, and not one by one, he added. He said so far about 70 percent of the votes had been tallied but some of the results were still contested.

A total of 48 political parties took part in the June 7 elections, the first since the fall of former president Suharto in May 1998.

According to the latest count, the Indonesian Democracy Party-Struggle of opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri is leading the poll with 36.5 percent, followed by the National Awakening Party with 18.4 percent and the ruling Golkar Party with 17.8 percent.

In fourth place is the Moslem United Development Party with 9.7 percent, followed by the National Mandate Party of reformist leader Amien Rais with 6.7 percent.