Indonesia starts election campaign with Jakarta governor Joko Widodo favourite to become new president

Indonesia's raucous election season kicked off yesterday with the promise of a fresh style of leadership in the world's third largest democracy, whose economic promise has been sapped by rampant graft, confusing policy and weak rule.

An uncertain election outlook changed on Friday when the main PDI-P opposition party named the popular governor of Jakarta as its candidate for July's presidential election. That lifted its chances of dominating the parliamentary election on April 9.

Opinion polls suggest the presidency is governor Joko Widodo's to lose. Joko's main rival is Prabowo Subianto, a retired general who was once married to former strongman Suharto's daughter and stands accused of a range of human rights abuses.

"He has to be the number-one favourite," said Keith Loveard, head of political risk analysis at Jakarta-based security company Concord Consulting, of the Jakarta governor, who is popularly known as Jokowi.

"It's unlikely any candidate could get anywhere near him."

PDI-P is led by ex-president Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of first president Sukarno whose image, and the nationalist tone it implies, is a constant motif in party propaganda.

"The biggest challenge for Jokowi is that he's not his party's chairman," Airlangga Hartarto, a member of Golkar's central executive council, said. "If he becomes president he will need to go back to Ibu Megawati to get support; it could be tricky. That's the hard part. He has to have a vice-president who can liaise with other parties to get support."