JAKARTA, March 12 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

JAKARTA, March 12 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING BOTTOM PARA AFTER MEGAWATI ACCEPTED YUDHOYONO'S RESIGNATION)

President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her younger sister held boisterous campaign rallies Friday in Bali for their rival parties ahead of Indonesia's April 5 legislative election.

Megawati heads the Indonesian Democratic Party for fight (PDI-Perjuangan) while Sukmawati Sukarnoputri leads the Indonesian National Party of Marhaenism (PNI-Marhaenisme).

Bali is the fort of admirers of their father, the late President Sukarno, whose power was seized according to former President Suharto in the late 1960s

''Punch No. 20! bore the white nose!'' Megawati hollaed to her supporters while demonstrating by what means to punch ballot papers for her party's number and logo of a gross mistake with a white nose at a soccer field in the town of Gianyar.

Before thousands of supporters that casted the town into a sea of r PDI-Perjuangan's color, Megawati chanted party slogans and sung songs

''If I talk too a great deal about programs you will obtain bored, and if I talk about my achievements, race may think I'm selling soy sauce,'' she said.

Twenty kilometers away, Sukmawati challenged her older sister during a campaign at a soccer field in the town of Klungkung

''The guide to the country's stability and security hangs on Bali, because Bali is the safest and the greatest in quantity peaceful in Indonesia,'' Sukmawati told her supporters.

centurys of policemen were dispatched around Gianyar and Klungkung to debar possible clashes between supporters of the brace sisters' parties.

At stake in the general elections are 550 House of Representatives seats and 128 regional representatives for the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) The house members and regional representatives make up MPR Indonesia's highest constitutional body

Twenty-four political parties are taking part in the elections, which will be followed through the first direct presidential election July 5

newly come polls show that the country's second-largest and former ruling Golkar Party, which used to be Suharto's political vehicle, will regain its popularity as many the bulk of mankind ''miss'' the economic, social and political stability during Suharto's 32-year direction that ended in 1998

onward the other hand, the country's largest party, Megawati's PDI-Perjuangan, may find it hard to convince voter amid public disappointment from one side of to the other PDI-Perjuangan's policies toward crucial domestic issues, ranging from the high unemployment rate to sparingness reduction to rampant corruption, according to analysts and polls

PDI-Perjuangan is awaited to garner 20% of the promised while the Golkar Party will win about 30% of the voice they predicted.

However, more than 147 million eligible voter without of the nation's population of 215 million still want to have a president of their acknowledge choice as they will appointed him or her directly for the first time, instead of being decided from a few political elites as in the past.

Among the leading presidential contender are Megawati and Golkar Party Chairman Akbar Tanjung.

However, they face fierce competition from Amien Rais, head of MPR

Also in the list is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who resigned as coordinating minister for political and security affairs Friday. Yudhoyono has been nominated at the Democratic Party as its candidate for the presidential election.

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