JAKARTA, Oct 17 (AFP) - Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri will not attend the swearing in of her successor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the country's first directly-elected leader, a close aide said Sunday.
"She will not attend the October 20 swearing in ceremony because ... there has never been a decree regulating this," said Pramono Anung, deputy secretary general of Megawati's Indonesian Democracy Party of Struggle (PDI-P.)
Anung told the ElShinta radio station there was no law or regulation that required an outgoing president to attend the swearing in of a new head of state.
Megawati told a party meeting on Saturday that she would not attend the ceremony on Wednesday at parliament, he said.
Anung also said Vice President Hamzah Haz would not attend the ceremony in which Yudhoyono will be sworn in as Indonesia's sixth president and his running mate Yusuf Kalla as vice president.
But a close aide to Haz, Lukman Hakim, was quoted by the Detikcom online news service as saying Haz had yet to make a decision.
Former general Yudhoyono won the September 20 presidential election run-off against Megawato by a landslide.
Parliament deputy secretary general Edi Siregar told ElShinta that the head of states of Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and East Timor had already confirmed they would be attending Yudhoyono's swearing in.