Some parties are calling for a recount

The party of incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the PDI-P, is trailing a close second.

With millions of ballots yet to be counted, it is still unclear who the eventual winner will be.

But it is already apparent that support for PDI-P has dropped dramatically - which could upset President Megawati's re-election bid in July.

With about 65% of the votes now counted, Golkar has 20.73% against the PDI-P's 19.95%.

That gap could widen as more votes are counted from outlying regions, where Golkar has a traditional foothold.

A senior PDI-P official said the search would soon be launched for a suitable running mate from another party to contest the presidential polls with President Megawati on 5 July.

Many voters are believed to have turned against her party because of the perception that the leadership was aloof and failed to keep promises to cut corruption and unemployment.

Recount calls

Several smaller parties have called for a recount.

ELECTION SCHEDULE 5 April - Legislative polls, contested by 24 parties July - Presidential poll, contested by parties that win at least 3% of seats in legislative polls September - Possible run-off if no-one wins 50% of total and 20% of votes in at least half the provinces In pictures: election day Packed election year

Local media quoted a party leader as saying 17 of the 24 competing parties had backed such calls because their officials were not allowed to supervise the electronic transfer of data from polling offices in remote parts of the Indonesian archipelago.

"We have called for all political parties not to validate the results before this matter is resolved by the election commission," Hidayat Nur Wahid of the National Awakening Party was quoted as saying.