Jakarta - The Democratic Party of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won the country's legislative elections, according to unofficial counts Friday, setting the stage for political horse-trading ahead of the July presidential polls. Three survey groups conducting so-called quick counts said the Democratic Party secured 20 per cent of the vote, a day after millions of Indonesians went the polls in the third legislative election since the 1998 downfall of autocratic president Suharto.

The nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri was neck and neck with the Golkar Party, currently the country's biggest, at around 14 per cent.

The Muslim-based Justice and Prosperity Party came fourth with around 8 per cent of the vote, according to the counts, based on samples of votes taken from polling stations across the country.

"The first and forth positions are secure," said Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a senior researcher at the Indonesian Survey Institute, one of the pollsters conducting the counts.

"Either Golkar or PDI-P could win the third position because the difference is small," he said.

The unofficial results were consistent with opinion polls that predicted the Democratic Party would win the election after finishing fifth in the 2004 elections.

Thursday's polls were marred by violence in the easternmost Papua region, where five people were killed hours before the voting started in a series of attacks blamed on separatist rebels, who have waged a sporadic guerrilla war for an independent Papua since the
1960s.

Thirty-eight political parties contested the polls, but only nine parties were expected to win seats in the national House of Representatives.

Parties, or coalitions of parties, that win at least 20 per cent of seats in the 560-member House, or 25 per cent of the popular vote, may nominate candidates for the July presidential election.

A run-off would be held in September if no ticket wins a clear majority in that vote's first round.

Yudhoyono is a favourite to win in July with his popularity rating above 60 per cent while his closest rival, Megawati, comes a distant second in opinion polls.

Yudhoyono's government has been credited with stabilizing the economy, improving security after a spate of deadly bombings blamed on Islamic militants and overseeing an aggressive campaign against corruption, seen as endemic as a result of Suharto's 32 years of autocratic rule.

Analysts said the Democrats were expected to be the only party to get the 20 per cent of House seats needed to run a candidate without forming a coalition, but Yudhoyono was likely to ally with smaller parties to give him a more comfortable support base in parliament.

Megawati and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, head of the Golkar Party, held a closed-door meeting last month, sparking speculations that the two parties could team up against Yudhoyono.

Kalla has expressed readiness to run for the top job, but polls indicated he would get less than 5 per cent of the vote, and some analysts said he might decide to team up with Yudhoyono again as a vice presidential candidate.

Former army generals Prabowo Subianto and Wiranto, both considered to have poor human rights records in the eyes of activists, also have presidential ambitions, but it was not clear whether either of them would be able to get the necessary parliamentary backing to run.

Their parties were in the seventh and eighth positions, respectively, in the quick count tallies.(dpa)