JAKARTA, May 31 (UPI) -- Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri opened her re-election bid Monday, pledging to create new jobs and combat corruption.
In a rare news conference, Megawati said her nearly 3-year-old government has achieved much compared with the previous administrations.
Megawati promised to create 12.9 million new jobs, reduce poverty by half and appoint as many as 500,000 teachers.
Indonesians eligible voters will go to the polls July 5 to elect the country's new president and vice president in the direct presidential elections -- the first in Indonesian history. A formal, month-long campaign opens Tuesday.
A second round of polling is scheduled for Sept. 20 if no pair win more than 50 percent in the first round.
Megawati strongly denied her government had failed to deal with the country's endemic corruption, blamed as a major obstacle to foreign investment.
Opinion polls show Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former top security minister, winning 40 percent of the July vote, way ahead of Megawati or Wiranto, the nominee for the Golkar party of former autocrat Suharto.
