Profiles: Indonesia election candidates

A decade after Indonesia was convulsed by riots and sectarian clashes as it emerged from 30 years of authoritarian rule, voters will elect a new president on 8 July in an election which shows every sign of being free and peaceful.

Around 170 million registered voters will choose from a field of three candidates - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, and former President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Anton Alifandi from the BBC World Service's Indonesian service looks at the three candidates.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Mr Yudhoyono, a retired army general, is seeking a second term. He was voted into office in 2004 in Indonesia's first direct presidential election.

Mr Yudhoyono has been happy to campaign on his economic record. Indonesia is one of the few big countries whose economy is still growing in the midst of the global recession.

The economy is projected to grow at around 4% in 2009, lower than in previous years but still respectable compared to Indonesia's closest neighbours, Singapore and Malaysia, which are experiencing economic contraction.

Mr Yudhoyono needed two rounds to win the election in 2004. This time, most polls suggest that he and his running mate, Mr Boediono, will wrap up the election in one round.

Polls suggest that he will get 52-67% of the vote, more than the 50% threshold required to win in the first round.

Like Jusuf Kalla he was a cabinet minister in Megawati Sukarnoputri's administration between 2001 and 2004.

Jusuf Kalla

Mr Kalla, unusually for Indonesia, has been very prominent as Mr Yodhoyono's vice-president.

He heads the Golkar Party, the dominant political party in Indonesia under the authoritarian government of President Suharto.

Mr Kalla is trying to portray himself as a more decisive leader than Mr Yudhoyono, who has often been portrayed as a ditherer.

He has claimed that it was he who brokered the peace deal which ended the rebellion in Aceh, when his own boss and others in the government were too scared to commit to the deal.

Mr Yudhoyono has acknowledged Mr Kalla's important role, but insists that he remained in overall charge of the whole process.

As a member of the present government, Mr Kalla cannot be too critical of the way the country has been governed, so his line of attack has been to say that it is he who has played the most prominent role in the successes of the present government.

Megawati Sukarnoputri

Ms Megawati leads the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), a party which has its roots in the Indonesian struggle for independence from Dutch colonial rule.

Ms Megawati's father, Sukarno, was Indonesia's first president.

She was president from 2001-04 and before that was Abdurrahman Wahid's vice-president.

She has styled herself as the pro-poor candidate and has attacked Mr Yudhoyono's government as free-market liberals whose policies have had a detrimental effect on the poor.

The liberal label resonates in Indonesia where the mainstream views it as a dirty word.

Ms Megawati's camp says the government has failed the poor.

In one of the televised vice-presidential debates, Ms Megawati's running-mate, Prabowo Subianto, pulled out a 20,000 rupiah ($2) note from his wallet to make the point that 50% of Indonesians only earn that amount in day. Not enough, he says, to buy coffee in the mall where the debate was held.

Ms Megawati's critics point out that despite her rhetoric, as president she presided over the privatisation of many state-owned companies, some of which were bought by foreign firms.

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