Daniel Ten Kate, Jakarta – As motorcycle engines rev loudly, hundreds of Jakartans clad in brightly-coloured T-shirts emblazoned with the face of one of the candidates vying to govern Indonesia's congested capital file into an arena.

Supporters of Fauzi Bowo, currently the deputy to Jakarta governor Sutiyoso, dance and wave large red, green, purple and white flags as party leaders shout slogans from a crowded stage.

But instead of celebrating a milestone in the country's young democracy, the lively gathering masks the old-fashioned machine politics that has sapped enthusiasm for Jakarta's first-ever gubernatorial elections set for this week.

Many attending the rallies that have snarled traffic and made extra work for street cleaners in the lead-up to Wednesday's polls have been paid supporters, looking to make a quick buck in a city with high levels of unemployment.

This week marks the first time Jakartans have been able to elect their governor directly after the central government introduced a decentralisation law in 2004 that allows hundreds of local elections across the archipelago.

But many doubt the historic vote will transform either Jakarta or the country. "I hope Fauzi wins, but I don't know if he will make the city any better," shrugs Arifin, a 40-year-old day labourer who received 20,000 rupiah (about two dollars) to show up at this rally. "I just hope the price of gasoline comes down."

Although the country's Constitutional Court made a landmark decision last month to allow independent candidates run in local elections, the registration date to stand in the August 8 polls had already passed. Voters are therefore left a choice of just two candidates, each backed by top political parties critics say are known more for paying large sums for prime positions than implementing visionary policies.

Faisal Basri, an economist at the University of Indonesia who spent more than a year preparing for a campaign that never happened, said Jakartans were not being offered enough choice.

"We tried to offer fresh new thinking for Jakarta and the country, but our experiment failed," he told a panel discussion last week, referring to would-be candidates who ran campaigns in anticipation of a favourable court decision coming earlier.

Opinion polls predict a low turnout, as voters doubt that either Bowo or his opponent, Adang Daradjatun, can fulfil lofty campaign promises to ease Jakarta's traffic gridlock, clean up choking pollution and improve access to education and healthcare.

Most analysts expect frontrunner Bowo to win easily, as he has secured backing from a coalition of 19 political parties.

While the alliance mostly stems from Indonesia's notorious money politics, some observers said it also reflected fears that Daradjatun – a former top national police officer supported by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), a leading Islamic party – would face pressure to try to implement sharia law in the fiercely secular capital.

"Adang is supported only by one Islamic party, and I cannot believe he won't implement some of the party's programmes when he is in power," Dita Indah Sari, a prominent women's labour activist, said last week. "If this candidate can win in Jakarta, I'm personally very afraid it will give PKS momentum in other local elections," she said.

PKS opponents point to Depok, a town just south of Jakarta, in which party chiefs tried to ban alcohol and prostitution shortly after taking power. But PKS leaders have tried to dispel fears that it will introduce the same conservative agenda for Jakarta, focusing instead on the party's reputation for stamping out corruption.

"Sharia doesn't need to be implemented by law, but the most important thing is the attitude of the leader," said Tadigu Teguh, a PKS member heading the security detail at a recent rally for Daradjatun. "If we implement sharia at a time when people don't understand it, it will be useless."

More than 65 percent of the city's 5.7 million registered voters are likely to stay home on election day, according to a poll conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) last month.

Executive director Saiful Mujani said the widespread voter apathy showed that Jakartans were "protesting the corrupt democracy," according to the English-language daily The Jakarta Post.

Sutiyoso, who was first appointed governor by the president in 1997, is completing his second five-year term in office. If Bowo is elected, he is expected to maintain the status quo – which critics say means more corruption and little progress on social reforms.

"The parties have the power and they don't care about the voice of the people," complained Rustam Ibrahim, chairman of local human rights group Yappika. "They have no ideology; it's just about money."

Despite the widespread allegations, both campaigns maintain they are clean and do not pay supporters. So far Jakarta's Election Oversight Committee agrees with them. "We have received several reports about vote-buying but we have no proof," Suhartono, who heads the committee, told AFP. "After campaigns give money to people, they can still vote for either candidate."