Issues: `Three candidates to contest July election'

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Sunday it was almost certain he would face former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in the presidential election once again, but with different vice presidential candidates. "Almost certainly Ibu Megawati will be competing against with me.

Almost certainly there will be another pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates," he said at his residence in Cikeas, Bogor, responding to a question about the possibility of a coalition with Megawati's party.

There is widespread speculation the other presidential candidate could be Prabowo Subianto, former commander of the Army's Special Forces. According to quick counts and the interim official poll results, Yudhoyono's Democratic Party has won 20 percent of votes, followed by Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party. Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) has collected about 5 percent, but Prabowo has managed to build a coalition with other smaller parties.

Your comments:
Please, put your country first before your personal ambitions. Even the poorest people of this country know that politics is dirty, but they don't care as long as the country is safe from one party attacking the other, creating national security problems. And we would consider you heroes of the people if you would just stop fighting each other. We, the people, are suffering because of it.

T. Cruise

President SBY is still the best among the rest of the candidates. My prayers and support will be with the incumbent President and hopefully he will lead this country again for the next five years. May God give him all the help in his duties running our country.

Siddhartta

Don't worry about supporters because some Golkar supporters would prefer SBY. I do not agree that SBY should choose Wiranto or Prabowo.

They will go against his government, so look to PAN, PKS, PPP or PBB.

Do your best for the future of our country and show the world our country is beautiful and peaceful.

DM Munawar

Golkar needs a new younger leader. The other so-called leaders cannot win the presidency - they are also disliked by the people of Indonesia.

A 10-year-old knows this to be true. The VP should be a professional not a dubious politician beyond his use-by date. Make Indonesia proud for a change and not a joke.

John Ralph