JAKARTA (AFP) - From the remote jungles of Papua to the sky-scrapers of Jakarta, Indonesia is staging landmark elections which will see the vast Southeast Asian archipelago choose its president for the first time.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri faces her former security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the poll, seen as a milestone in Indonesia's transition to democracy after the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998.
Voting in the election got under way at 7:00 am (2200 GMT Sunday) in the eastern province of Papua, which lies two time zones ahead of the Indonesian capital. It was scheduled to continue across the country until 1:00 pm local time.
Although first results were expected late Monday, with a clear picture emerging within 24 hours, a full count will take weeks as polls from more than 150 million eligible voters are tallied across far-flung islands.
Security is high for the elections, which come days after a deadly bomb blast that killed nine people outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta -- Indonesia's third major extremist attack in two years.
The country has been placed on "full alert" with the deployment of thousands of extra security personnel.
Yudhoyono is widely expected to sweep the election, having consistently scored nearly double the support for Megawati in opinion polls taken since a July 5 first-round presidential vote that saw the former general emerge frontrunner.
With little to distinguish the candidates' broad policies on economic reform, tackling corruption and improving security, the presidential race has largely become a personality contest favouring Yudhoyono.
At ease in front of the camera, Yudhoyono has shown himself a smooth operator in public, revealing a common touch that has endeared him to many in the country where most people survive on less than two dollars a day.
In contrast Megawati has been struggling to shake off a reputation as an aloof and uncaring leader, losing support among the country's impoverished rural "little people".
Analysts say Yudhoyono's pedigree as an ex-military man, who led operations to capture Islamic extremists blamed for the October 2002 Bali bombings and an August 2003 strike on Jakarta's Marriott hotel, may also help his prospects.
But they warn Megawati, daughter of Indonesia's founding president, cannot be written off -- particularly after the endorsement of a powerful four-party political alliance headed by Golkar.
Monday's vote marks the the final stage in a marathon year of elections for Indonesia, beginning in April with legislative polls that saw Golkar wrest power from Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.