Olivia Rondonuwu and Sunanda Creagh, Jakarta – Complaints of voter list irregularities by the two challengers for Indonesia's presidency soured the mood on the eve of elections on Tuesday, with one camp alleging that there were problems with up to 20 million names.
Opinion polls have consistently shown that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will trounce his rivals in Wednesday's vote, winning a second term and a chance to quicken the pace of reform in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
The objections to the voting process, led by Yudhoyono's challengers, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, are not expected to derail the election.
However, analysts said the complaints could be a tactic aimed at fanning public doubt about the credibility of the process and paving the way for the losers to challenge the result.
Security was stepped up in the capital, Jakarta, and other parts of the country on Tuesday because of fears that wrangling over the credibility of the register of some 176.3 million voters could spark protests in the world's third-largest democracy.
"People should not be confused, and this should not make the world view what is happening in our country as abnormal," Yudhoyono told reporters late on Monday, urging his rivals not to act improperly ahead of the vote.
Despite the jousting over the electoral rolls, preparations were underway across the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands. On the resort island of Bali, election officials wearing traditional sarongs and kebaya blouses set up polling stations in Tanjung Benoa, as tourists sunbathed on a nearby beach.
However, the atmosphere was tense in Papua, where extra police and special forces were on standby after recent violence linked to separatists in the remote province. Papuans wearing traditional penis gourds looked on as booths were set up using traditional woven bags instead of ballot boxes.
A victory for Yudhoyono would most likely bring a renewed push for reform to attract foreign investment, create jobs and drive economic, which has slowed from 6.1 percent in 2008 and is expected to come in at between 3 and 4 percent this year.
"We hope to be able to see a continuation of the reforms that we already started," Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told Reuters in an interview, adding that the new government would need to send "a strong signal that we are moving in the right direction."
If Yudhoyono takes more than half of the votes in the vote there will be no need for a run-off with the runner-up. A clear picture of the result should emerge by around 2 p.m. (3 a.m. EDT).
Analysts say a victory for Yudhoyono, widely known as "SBY," would come on the back of his modest success in tackling graft and the best economic performance in a decade.
Stocks, bonds and the rupiah have rallied this year on the prospect of a Yudhoyono win, and analysts see them rising further on hopes for a heftier reform drive in his next five-year term.
The rupiah, the best-performing currency in Asia so far in 2009, eased 0.3 percent against the dollar in afternoon trade on Tuesday. Indonesian stocks, which are up 50 percent so far this year, were up about 1 percent
Indonesian sovereign bond prices have also rallied in the last few months, with yields set to fall further if foreign investors return after the presidential election, traders said.
Concern over the voting lists arose first in the run-up to a parliamentary election in April, when duplicate and fictitious names were found on rolls and some voters were not registered.
Tension over the issue was partly defused on Monday when key demands made by Kalla and Megawati were met, including their request to receive copies of the electoral rolls.
Indicating that Yudhoyono's opponents were backing away from earlier suggestions they could ask for the poll to be postponed, Megawati on Tuesday urged her supporters to go out and vote.
But her running-mate, Prabowo Subianto, said he still believed there were a minimum of 10 million names with problems. "We expect it could be potentially as many as 20 million names," the former general told a news conference.
An economist at the Danareksa Institute played down the prospect of violence over the list dispute. "I think the losing parties will complain but I don't think they will challenge in a serious way," said Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa.
Aleksius Jemadu, acting dean of political science at Pelita Harapan University, also ruled out the prospect of riots on a national scale but said there could be localised violence.
[Additional reporting by John Pakage in Puncak Jaya and Luh de Suriyani in Bali. Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by John Chalmers.]