Wahid to leave Indonesia

The vote is being relayed live on television

Sacked Indonesian leader Abdurrahman Wahid has announced that he will leave Jakarta for the United States on Thursday.

Mr Wahid, who has refused to come out of the presidential palace since his dismissal on Monday, will receive medical treatment in the US. Doctors say they fear he might suffer a stroke induced by stress.

In the Indonesian national assembly, two rounds of voting have failed to elect a new vice president expected to be influential in forming President Megawati Sukarnoputri's first cabinet.

A third and final vote is due to take place on Thursday between Hamzah Haz - chairman of the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP), and Akbar Tanjung - the head of the former-ruling party Golkar.

Megawati visited the grave of her father on Wednesday

The BBC Jakarta correspondent, Richard Galpin, says Mr Wahid's decision to leave the country for medical treatment appears to be a face-saving act.

Immediately after his dismissal, the 60-year-old called the move "illegal" and said he would fight it.

But friends and family say he has now accepted his sacking and will try to organise civil opposition to what he fears is attempts by the military to take over.

In his first interview since his dismissal, Mr Wahid told our correspondent: "The hawks within the armed forces will try to impose the status quo and then they will use the quarrels between the politicians to set up their own rule."

"Maybe within five or six months things will be different. People begin to react to the return of censorship, to the return of many restrictions in their lives," he said.

Mr Wahid is nearly blind and has had two strokes in recent years. He suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes and cannot walk unaided.

VP first-round vote

A field of five candidates for Indonesian vice president was reduced to two on Wednesday.

Five candidates were nominated

Hamzah Haz won both rounds but failed to gain 50% of the vote in either.

The second round vote gave Hamzah Haz 254 votes; Akbar Tanjung 203; and Mr Wahid's former security minister, retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono 147.

Another retired general, Agum Gumelar, who took over from General Yudhoyono as security minister, and Siswono Yudo Husodo, a former housing minister under Suharto in the 1980s, were both eliminated in the first round of voting.

Bitter exchanges

The process has sparked bitter exchanges between the rivals, threatening to undermine the coalition that made Megawati's appointment possible.

Thousands of people demonstrated on Wednesday outside parliament

Our correspondent says the Islamic bloc in parliament had assumed its candidate, Hamzah Haz would stand unopposed as part of a deal to balance the more nationalist forces represented by President Megawati, but others have now joined the race.

His remaining opponent is Akbar Tanjung, leader of the Golkar party, used by former President Suharto to prop up his long period of authoritarian rule.

Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle has not put forward a candidate.

Protests

Hours before the vote was due to take place, about 2,000 students gathered outside the heavily-guarded parliament building protesting against the vice-presidency going to either Golkar or the military.

Demonstrators waving flags shouted: "Fight the return of the New Order, fight the return of Golkar, down with the military."

Earlier, President Megawati visited the grave of her father - Indonesia's founding leader, Sukarno - in Mr Wahid's political stronghold of Blitar, East Java.