Novel Dunia

By Jakarta correspondent Geoff Thompson

Posted Tue Jul 7, 2009 6:21pm AEST
Updated Tue Jul 7, 2009 7:43pm AEST

Hundreds of thousand of police have been deployed across Indonesia ahead of tomorrow's presidential elections and last-minute disputes over voter lists have been settled.

Incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is widely expected to be re-elected tomorrow with reputable polls suggesting that he could win about 63 per cent of the vote.

That would see him avoid a run-off election in September and also become the first leader in democratic Indonesia to be elected to a second five-year term.

Campaigning with a slogan which translates as "more of the same", the President affectionately known as SBY has benefited from a period of political stability and solid economic growth, even in the face of the global economic crisis.

His administration's attempts to tackle Indonesia's endemic culture of corruption have also won praise.

Apart from an attempt by rivals to make an issue out of whether candidates wives wore headscarves, religious issues have hardly featured in the campaign.