Indonesia polls may not be that close a call

AS 190 million Indonesian voters head for the polls today, the candidates vying to become their country's second directly elected president are virtual photo negatives of the other.

The most recent polls say the result is a toss-up between a member of the country's most powerful families and a man whose friends convinced him to run for public office a decade ago at a modest restaurant and ice cream parlour.

In one corner is the former special forces general Prabowo Subianto, descended from wealthy Javanese aristocracy and educated abroad. He disparages the country's democratisation and muses about a return to the very constitution that afforded his one-time father-in-law, the dictator Suharto, sweeping powers of patronage and decades in power. Mr Prabowo has never held public office.