Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Megawati Sukarnoputri, who has placed well behind Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in recent polls, has blamed the incumbent president's "selective" policy on combating corruption for tarnishing her image ahead of Wednesday's presidential poll.

Speaking with the aid of a translator at a discussion organized by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondent's Club in Jakarta on Friday, Megawati said that though she appreciated the work of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Yudhoyono had used the antigraft body to target his political enemies.

Megawati, herself a former president, said that it was often the case that two corruption suspects would be found guilty of breaching the same law yet receive different sentences.

"Perhaps it is because the first comes from my party, while the second comes from another party," Megawati claimed. "It makes me lose a lot in terms of my good name and image. It is selective and unfair."

The allegations, which normally come from members of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), are nothing new. Questions were raised by several PDI-P legislators after a number of the party's members and supporters, most notably former Fisheries Minister Rokhmin Dahuri, were charged and jailed for corruption after Yudhoyono won the presidency in 2004.

Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng denied Megawati's assertions, saying the number of PDI-P officials finding themselves at the wrong end of the law was simply because the party had occupied senior positions within the central government. "It is different with the Democratic Party because Pak SBY always reminds us to avoid corruption."