Keith B. Richburg, Jakarta – Following her apparent victory in democratic elections last month, Megawati Sukarnoputri has declared that the Indonesian people have given her the mandate to lead the country.

Mrs. Megawati also said, in a rare interview published Thursday, that she expected the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, to follow "the people's leaning" and back her bid for the presidency.

"The people have given me the mandate to fulfill their wish for me to lead the country toward a new Indonesia with a new spirit, mentality, and views," she told Tajuk, an bimonthly Indonesian magazine. Mrs. Megawati had maintained a low profile since the elections.

Asked about criticism by Islamic clerics who say a woman should not lead the country, she said: "If the people have ever had any doubts, then the truth is out now with the election result."

Her political enemies have been devising new scenarios, concocting new schemes, and coming up with often bizarre mathematical formulations to block her path to the presidency.

Indonesians voted on June 7 for 462 seats in the 700-member electoral college that will choose the country's next president later this year. Although Mrs. Megawati's party is the clear winner of the elections, with at least 35 percent of the popular vote, she still lacks a majority.

The current ruling party, Golkar, unaccustomed to losing and unwilling to admit defeat, is trying to cobble together a coalition with smaller Islamic parties and appointed members, hoping to keep its incumbent, B.J. Habibie, in power.

According to the still-unfinished vote count, Golkar is in distant second place, with just over 20 percent of the vote. Mrs. Megawati's People's Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, has won nearly twice as many votes as Golkar. With about 60 percent of the vote counted, Mrs. Megawati's party had 23.68 million votes, compared with 12.67 million for Golkar.

A Western diplomat in Jakarta said Thursday that while it was mathematically possible to block Mrs. Megawati's presidential bid, he believed it unlikely. "I find it difficult to believe she can be denied power," he said. "And I find it difficult to see anything arising that can exclude her from power."

There had been speculation that Mrs. Megawati might be persuaded to accept a lesser job, like vice president or speaker of Parliament. But this diplomat said Mrs. Megawati, in their private conversations, only expressed interest in the presidency, saying: "The people have spoken."

In the interview, she rejected the idea of leading a multiparty coalition government, saying such an arrangement would only work in a parliamentary system, and could cause the government to collapse if one party in the coalition withdrew its support.

She said she intended to ask for support from all political parties that are "pro-reform, pro-democracy, and anti-status quo." The term "status quo" here usually refers to Golkar and the holdovers from the regime of former President Suharto.