Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – It is sarcastically known as a "three-in-one" event – a reference to Jakarta's pointless peak-hour traffic regulation prohibiting cars with fewer than three occupants from using central feeder roads.

The nationally televised presidential debate between the three contenders for Indonesia's top job – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Sukarnoputri – was devoid of one key element: debate.

Much as the traffic rule is easily avoided by paying 5000 rupiah (61c) to a "jockey" who jumps into your car for the ride, the three candidates simply ignored expectations of fireworks.

"It was three-in-one," political scientist Syamsudin Haris mocked. "One says 'A', and another agrees with it. I had imagined beforehand something more significant."

Dr Yudhoyono is streets ahead of his two opponents in opinion polling for the July 8 election, with Mr Kalla a similar distance ahead of the hapless Ms Megawati. This might have been expected to produce some spark in Thursday night's spectacle.

But asked by moderator Anies Baswedan, a prominent political scientist and head of Paramadina University, to explain their campaign slogans, the three engaged in prolonged mutual congratulations. Ms Megawati's "pro-rakyat" (meaning for the people and a play on the name of her running mate, retired general Prabowo Subianto) gave Dr Yudhoyono a chance to declare he supported his former boss "200 per cent".

The pair have refused to speak since he quit her cabinet and ran against her in 2004.

And as General Prabowo has been linked to the disappearance and torture of democracy activists during the late 1990s while the old regime of dictator Suharto crumbled, it remains unclear just how much he was "for the people".

However, the first of five debates was for the presidential candidates only; the general will get his chance on Tuesday when he faces off against his sworn enemy, fellow retired general Wiranto (standing with Mr Kalla on the official Golkar party ticket) and genial economics professor and former central bank chief Boediono, standing as Dr Yudhoyono's deputy. The "Mega-Pro" ticket has run on a backwards-looking nationalism that implies the doctors Yudhoyono and Boediono would sell their country down the river.

The only tense moment of the debate came when Ms Megawati accused the government of failing to help victims of the East Java "mud volcano", which has left hundreds of thousands homeless. The outflow, which daily spews forth enough mud to fill 40 Olympic swimming pools, was the result of a 2006 drilling accident in a field operated by oil and gas outfit Lapindo, part owned by the family of Social Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie.

"If anyone (in the Yudhoyono administration) doubts whether this is a disaster caused by nature or industry, let the matter be decided legally," Ms Megawati chided.

The Bakrie company seems to have won a battle to limit its exposure to the clean-up bill, citing difficulties in the global financial crisis.

But it was a gentle jab from Ms Megawati. Everything else was, in the words of analyst Indria Samego, little more than "ketchup sales".