Recount in landmark poll
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 Indonesians are looking for a change from Megawati.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's election commission has ordered a recount of what could be millions of ballots in the country's first-ever direct presidential election.
The commission made the move on Monday after many voters failed to unfold their ballots before punching a hole next to their candidate's name.
There are 150 million registered voters in Indonesia, and it is not clear how the recount will affect the final tally.
But officials will now have to check ballots with two holes in them to see if they align when they are refolded. If so, then the vote will count. If not, the ballot will be thrown out.
Before the recount was accounted, final results were not set to be announced until July 26.
But private counts considered reliable were due to be available as early as Tuesday.
Pre-election surveys in this nation of 220 million people indicate a strong showing by former chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Four other candidates are also in the race to lead the world's most populous Muslim nation, including incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of the country's founding father, Sukarno.
Analysts say voters are angry Megawati has failed to follow up on her early economic successes and to clean up corruption that plagues daily life in Indonesia.
"I am very disappointed with the current government. Megawati seems weak. That's why I voted in these elections, because I want a change," Reuters quoted Gafur Latuconsina, 54, a rice seller in the Muslim neighborhood of Soabali in Ambon city, as saying.
After Megawati's four years in power, the economy remains sluggish and she has been unable to turn around a rise in militant Muslim bomb attacks, which have claimed hundreds of lives.
Indonesians say they want someone to crack down on security in Indonesia, seen by many observers as a frontline in the bid to crack down on the war on terror.
Pre-election polls show 54-year-old Susilo, widely seen as a politician with a common touch and the clout to deliver reforms, leading the charge, with around 40 percent support compared to Megawati's 15 percent.
While the former general has not laid out any specifics on how he would help the resource-rich economy, he has promised to boost security and tackle corruption during his campaign,
If none of the five candidates in the fray wins over 50 percent of the vote, there will be a run-off in September between the top two contenders .
Susilo, who has a U.S. graduate degree, says he is confident of winning the most votes, but not enough to avoid the runoff.
"I have confidence that if there is nothing extraordinary, I can head for the second round," Yudhoyono, in a short-sleeved blue-and-white shirt, told reporters while walking to a polling booth near his house in a suburb of Bogor, a hill city some 30 km (18 miles) south of Jakarta.
The polls, the first by universal suffrage, are seen as a key step toward democracy six years after the fall of dictator Suharto, who ruled for 32 years.
Previous presidents were elected by lawmakers -- a system widely abused by Suharto.
With Yudhoyono the favorite, opinion polls show a close battle for second spot between Megawati, former military chief Wiranto and moderate Muslim leader Amien Rais.
Soccer to blame
Wiranto has promised to get tough on terror, reform the country's legal system and to boost business.
Wiranto is backed by the Golkar Party, which won parliamentary elections in April. But his chances could be hampered after he was indicted in East Timor for alleged human rights violations in the period surrounding the tiny territory's break from Indonesia in 1999.
The other candidates are parliamentary speaker Amien Rais, former head of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-largest Islamic organization; and Hamzah Haz, who has served as Megawati's vice president but has almost no support.
A defeat for Megawati, the fourth civilian president, could be the coup de grace for the age of dynastic politics in Indonesia, where simply having "Sukarno" in your name was a certain vote-getter.
But it won't mean a revolution, analysts say, because all the presidential contenders represent the same political, business and military elites who support evolutionary reforms.
Analysts expected a high turnout among the 150 million registered voters, the first of which cast their ballots Monday on the eastern side of Indonesia's sprawling archipelago.
But in the first few hours of voting, many polling stations across Indonesia's 13,000 islands reported a less than lackluster start to proceedings.
Officials blamed the Euro 2004 final -- which finished early Monday in soccer-mad Indonesia -- for the sluggish opening.
