by Heru Andriyanto

    JAKARTA, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesia on Monday held its first direct presidential election to choose one of five contenders, including incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

    The Commission for General Elections (KPU) has registered more than 153 million eligible voters in Monday's election, in which voters for the first time are directly voting for their leader.

    Previous presidents were chosen by voting among members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR),the upper house in the parliament, who acted as Electoral College.

    Megawati cast the ballot at a voting station in South Jakarta, accompanied by her husband Taufik Kiemas, but declining to delivera comment.

    Various opinion polls indicated that the president is trailing behind pre-election favorite Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a security minister in her cabinet who resigned ahead of the April 5 legislative election.

    Yudhoyono himself looked very confident when he was meeting journalists at a polling station near his residence in the Jakartasuburb of Bogor.

    He will advance to the second round, the four-star army general expressed his optimism.

    The elect president must win above 50 percent of the votes and at least 20 percent of votes in 16 out of Indonesia's 32 provinces.

    If no candidate wins the outright majority, a runoff will be held on Sept. 20.

    Former Indonesia's strong man Soeharto, who has ruled the country for 32 years, cast ballot at his neighborhood of Menteng, Central Jakarta, accompanied by his daughter Siti Herdiyanti Rukmana.

    Soeharto, 83, responded only with smile when asked whose candidate he was voting for, but local media reports said the Soeharto family lends support for Wiranto, a candidate from the country's largest party Golkar.

    Retired army general Wiranto was the ex-military chief in the last years of Soeharto's authoritarian regime.

    Other candidates are MPR Speaker Amien Rais and current Vice President Hamzah Haz.

    Rais, a former leader of second largest Muslim group Muhammadiyah, voted in his hometown of Yogyakarta.

    "If I lose, it will mean all is over. But if I win,the people'smandate will be a huge burden to fulfill," he said.

    Metro TV reported the elections went peacefully in some troubled areas, including Aceh and Maluku, where the government isfacing long-lived rebellions and sectarian clashes.

    Visiting former US resident Jimmy Carter, who attended several polling stations here, said the election is a wonderful transitionfrom authoritarian rule to purely democratic rule in just six years. Enditem