Former general wins Indonesian election

Former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won Indonesia's presidential election run-off in a landslide on pledges to create…

Former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won Indonesia's presidential election run-off in a landslide on pledges to create jobs, stamp out corruption and fight terrorism.

Preliminary final results obtained on Monday gave Mr Yudhoyono 60 per cent of Indonesia's first direct leadership ballot while incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri took 39 per cent.

Election commission officials said the result from the September 20th poll would be formally announced later on Monday, once final checks had been made on one small province.

That would allow Mr Yudhoyono (55) to declare victory and talk more publicly about his policies and cabinet choices. He will be sworn in on October 20th and has said his cabinet will start working on that day.

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Unofficial counting in the days after the ballot showed Yudhoyono had easily won the poll, but Ms Megawati had said she would not concede defeat until the election commission announcement.

One hitch now could be protests by Megawati's team to the Constitutional Court over concerns of possible irregularities in several provinces.

But foreign and local election observers have said there were no major irregularities that should affect the overall result.