July 5 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesians began voting today to elect their next president with opinion polls showing incumbent Megawati Soekarnoputri trailing Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general who was her security minister until March.

As many as 155 million people are eligible to vote in the first popular ballot for the presidency. Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time throughout the archipelago of 18,500 islands and will close at 1 p.m. The country has three time zones and Papuans, on the eastern edge, were first to vote.

Some 800,000 police were deployed nationwide as voters entered polling stations after a peaceful, monthlong campaign centered on promises to boost growth, create jobs, curb corruption and improve stability. Indonesia's economy, Southeast Asia's biggest, is yet to regain its size before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

``The election period has been longer than in other countries, so the concern has been more persistent than elsewhere,'' said David Nellor, the International Monetary Fund's representative in Indonesia. ``But so far the election process has gone remarkably smoothly.''

Today's election follows polls this year in India and Sri Lanka, where governments changed, and Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines. Indonesia's 1999 elections were marred by violence that stopped monitors from visiting the province of Aceh. Elections for parliament were held in April with Golkar, the governing party during three decades of Suharto's rule, winning the most seats.

`Pulse of Freedom'

Four of the country's five presidents since independence assumed power after a revolution, a military coup, a popular uprising and, in Megawati case, after parliament nominated her after firing her predecessor. None until now has been directly elected in a democratic vote.

``I have voted eight times,'' said Abdul Hakim Hadi,53, village chief of Menteng Atas in central Jakarta. ``But this time I feel the people's sovereignty. It's a great feeling. We are free people.''

President Megawati voted in a South Jakarta polling station at 11 a.m. while Yudhoyono, her principal rival, voted in Bogor, Central Java. In a speech to the nation Sunday night she described today's poll as ``not a stand-alone activity, but part of the whole national reform movement we have been carrying out since 1998.''

Indonesians can vote directly today for any of five presidential candidates, including Wiranto, an ex-general fielded by Golkar, Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party, and Hamzah Haz of the United Development Party, Megawati's vice president currently.

Common Plank

``It doesn't seem any of the five candidates are likely to diverge radically from broad outlines of economic management in place since the early 1980s, late 1970s,'' said Eugene Galbraith, president commissioner of PT Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's second- largest lender by assets. ``That is reassuring.''

Frontrunner Yudhoyono, who had as much as three times the support of his nearest rivals in some opinion polls, will be seeking enough votes to avoid a run-off election that will be required if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the total vote and at least 20 percent of votes cast in more than half the 32 provinces.

Monitors may predict a winner as early as tomorrow, though final results may not be available until the end of the month.

Yudhoyono, 54, had the support of 44 percent of 2,000 people polled in 32 provinces from June 17 to June 26, according to the International Foundation for Election Systems. The foundation said former general Wiranto, 57, was backed by 14 percent.

Megawati, who took power three years ago after the impeachment of her predecessor, was third with 12 percent, and may not qualify for the September run-off, if one is needed. Hamzah Haz and Amien Rais both had less than 10 percent support. The opinion polls have a 2.2 percent margin of error.

Restructured Economy

Whoever wins will become the fifth president in six years, inheriting a $208 billion economy that was restructured under International Monetary Fund supervision following a 1997-1998 financial crisis. Economic growth is forecast at at least 4.8 percent this year, from 4.5 percent last year, the fastest since a 1998 recession.

Still, that's less than the 6.5 percent pace the IMF and World Bank say is needed to find jobs for a country adding 2 million new jobseekers a year.

``We should increase foreign direct investment in Indonesia while aiming to boost economic growth,'' Yudhoyono said in a televised debate on Thursday, vowing to create a more ``democratic, secure, peaceful, fair and prosperous Indonesia.''

Security also remains a key issue in Indonesia. Terrorist attacks, including the Oct. 2002 bombing of a Bali nightclub in which 202 people died, and separatist movements in Aceh and elsewhere have made stability a key concern for Indonesians and outsiders.

Wiranto

``Indonesian people need these three things: to live in a peaceful manner, to have enough food, and to live in security,'' Wiranto said in a televised debate on Thursday night.

The general is a former armed forces commander who was indicted in an East Timor court for allegedly overseeing abuses in the former Indonesian province, which gained independence in 2002.

Megawati, who became Indonesia's fifth president in July 2001, on Wednesday pointed to progress in improving Indonesia's security situation, six years after popular protests led to the ouster of Suharto, who took power in a military coup and ruled the country for three decades.

``We have done a democratic general election,'' said the president, whose father led Indonesia from Independence in 1945 until his ouster by Suharto. ``In the end, we can put the power in a proper place: in the people's hands.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Claire Leow in Jakarta at cleow@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 5, 2004 00:14 EDT