Indonesian presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono representing the Indonesian Democratic Party and his wife show the voting marks on their thumbs after casting the votes in a polling station in the south of Jakarta Sept. 20, 2004. Indonesia started its historic presidential runoff at 7:00 (0000GMT) Monday in all 32 provinces across the country. (Xinhua Photo/Enwaer)

Indonesian presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono representing the Indonesian Democratic Party casts his vote with his wife in a polling station in the south of Jakarta Sept. 20, 2004. (Xinhua Photo/Enwaer)

    JAKARTA, Sept. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesia held its first direct presidential election runoff peacefully on Monday, and all polling stations were closed around 13:00 (local time).

    Under strict security, Indonesia kicked off its presidential election runoff from 7:00 a.m. in all 32 provinces across the country,just 11 days after the latest terrorist bombing in front of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

    Jakarta, the capital city of the country with a population of some 9 million, appeared much quiet and free of traffic jam.

    In the polling stations of No. 57 and No. 69 of Central Jakarta,election officials estimated that some 80 percent to 90 percent ofthe eligible voters had cast their ballots.

    The government officially announced Sept. 20 as a national holiday, to offer some 155 million eligible voters the enough timeto cast their ballots in their own communities to choose their favorite candidates from the incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her running mate Hasim Muzadi of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and their rival pair Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Jusuf Kalla representing the Indonesian Democratic Party.

    Hundreds of international observers from the United States, the European Union, Australia and international organizations as well as domestic non-governmental organizations were monitoring the election. Major political parties, including the ruling PDI-P and its allied Golkar Party as well as the Susilo-led Democratic Party,sent at least 2 million monitors to watch the process closely in all 567,000 polling stations throughout the country.

    In order to stem and prevent fresh terror attacks during the runoff, the Indonesian security authority had deployed 189,000 police and 37,000 military personnel, along with 1.2 million civilian security auxiliaries in all polling stations to ensure security during the voting.

    The Indonesian General Elections Commission (KPU) is scheduled to complete the ballot counting on Sept. 26 and officially announce the election result on Oct. 5. A new government would swear in on Oct. 20. Enditem¡¡