President Megawati Sukarnoputri teamed up with the head of Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation in an attempt to re-energise her flagging campaign for a second term.
Megawati announced that Hasyim Muzadi, head of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) which claims 40 million followers, would be her vice-presidential running-mate for the July 5 election.
The president faces a tough fight, especially after her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lost the April 5 parliamentary poll to the Golkar party of former dictator Suharto.
PDI-P's support slumped from 34 percent in 1999 to just 18.5 percent. Megawati hopes Muzadi will bring millions of Islamic votes with him to supplement her own party's secular-nationalist appeal.
To stress the nationalist connection she made her announcement at the site where her father president Sukarno proclaimed independence from the Dutch in 1945.
"We are gathered here at the site where the Sukarno-Hatta duo proclaimed our independence. Today I, Megawati Sukarnoputri, am here to announce my candidacy and determine my running mate," she told some 500 people.
But in what some spectators saw as a bad omen, two big pictures of Megawati and Muzadi collapsed as she approached the podium to deliver her speech.
Muzadi said he hoped his pairing with Megawati would end division between nationalists and Islamists but stressed his moderate credentials.
"I have worked to present Islam that is moderate to the world and praise be to Allah that the idea of moderation is beginning to be understood and accepted," he said.
A book given to guests describes Megawati as unambitious, humble and peace-loving. "Why does Megawati remain the most popular of presidential candidates? The answer is because her deeds, views and ideas are in keeping with popular aspirations," it says.
Millions of voters who would disagree with that assessment turned on April 5 to the new Democrat party founded by her personable former security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
He is way ahead of her as preferred president in opinion polls. Another ex-general, former military chief Wiranto, is Golkar's candidate.
Former president Abdurrahman Wahid could also torpedo the Megawati-Muzadi team. Wahid's relations with his former deputy Megawati have been prickly since parliament sacked him in 2001 with the support of her PDI-P party.
Wahid, nicknamed Gus Dur, founded the NU-linked National Awakening Party and remains influential in NU. He has refused to endorse Muzadi's candidacy. Azyumardi Azra, rector of the State Islamic University, said Muzadi would hurt rather than help the president.
He told AFP that NU followers "will listen more to Gus Dur than to Hasyim Muzadi." Wahid's grandfather founded the movement. "I think the NU members will split into a number of camps," Azra said. "And don't forget that Jusuf Kalla is also of an NU background," he added, referring to Yudhoyono's running mate.
Megawati could also suffer if Wahid's brother Solahuddin Wahid teams up with Wiranto and gets the ex-president's support, Azra said. Golkar is due to announce its vice-presidential candidate on Monday.
Asked whether he has Wahid's blessing, Muzadi told reporters: "I'm not a party member so I don't have to ask permission from party officials." On whether he is confident of winning the election, he said only: "We need to work hard."