Vaudine England, Jakarta – Exactly one month after Indonesia's groundbreaking general election, just 59 per cent of votes have been counted in Jakarta.

And one reason for the delay is money. "Some of the provincial offices are holding the National Election Commission [KPU] to ransom," an election expert said. "Some provincial committees are saying, in effect, no results if no more money".

The situation was described by one source as "the usual extortion", implying that some provincial-level electoral officers are simply trying to earn more from this process of vote compilation, checking and transmission that is going on longer than expected.

The potential for this impasse arises from the many layers of bureaucracy involved in the vote tabulation process.

All votes in the June 7 poll have been counted at district level and sent to provincial centres, which are then supposed to transmit the checked results to Jakarta. So far, valid results have been received from 13 of the country's 27 provinces.

Allegations of procedural violations and alleged mistakes are being investigated at provincial level, before final tallies are sent to Jakarta. At the same time, some provincial election officers apparently feel the KPU should be honouring their work further, with extra payments.

The KPU has all the relevant funding available and much of it has been disbursed, but representatives of smaller political parties in provincial election committees are "making a nuisance of themselves", according to one source.

Each new vote tally from Jakarta reinforces the lead of Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, with about 36 per cent of votes cast, with the ruling Golkar party in second place with just over 19 per cent. Some political groups are also seeking an excuse in the vote-tally hold-ups for a delay in forming the next parliament, and even a delay in choice of a president.

Oka Mahendra, an election official, said the PPI (the Elections Committee) had sent representatives to some regional counts to try to resolve the disputes. But he added: "If the provincial committees cannot resolve their problems, then they will be brought to the PPI for settlement. We cannot afford to wait for too long".

The country's most influential Islamic leader threw his support yesterday behind opposition leader Ms Megawati's presidential bid, in an apparent attempt to sway the debate over whether a woman can possibly lead the world's largest Muslim nation.

Abdurrahman Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur, is a prominent figure in Indonesian politics and a longtime political ally of Ms Megawati. But until yesterday he had refused to endorse her presidential candidacy.