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ailed presidential candidates Megawati Soekarnoputri and Jusuf Kalla are pushing for a possible election rerun, with both jockeying to be the one to face off against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The General Elections Commission's (KPU) official count gives Yudhoyono won 73.8 million votes, or 60.8 percent of the total in the July 8 election.

A runoff election is required if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of votes. Yudhoyono was thus handed an outright victory.

However, Megawati's legal team, led by Arteria Dahlan, claims 28.6 million votes for Yudhoyono are invalid.

"The 28.6 million votes came from voters registered more than once, underage voters and even dead voters," the team said Tuesday in a hearing at the Constitutional Court in Central Jakarta.

"We believe the KPU awarded these invalid votes to Yudhoyono."

The hearing, open to the public, was the first in a review of evidence submitted by Megawati's and Kalla's teams in protest at the election result.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the court will hear testimony and review more evidence from both teams, before the KPU makes its final decision next week.

Constitutional Court chief Moh. Mahfud M.D. previously said the court could annul the election result if it found sufficient evidence of massive and systematic fraud.

"If the invalid votes are subtracted from Yudhoyono's total, it would give him about 45.2 million votes, or 48.7 percent of total votes," Megawati's team said.

"We now ask the Constitutional Court to nullify the KPU's decision and strike the invalid votes from Yudhoyono's total."

The team called on the KPU to hold a runoff vote between Yudhoyono and Megawati, who came second in the polls.

Failing that, they went on, the KPU must hold a revote nationwide or in the 25 provinces with the most polling violations.

Kalla's legal team agreed there have been widespread irregularities in the voting and the vote counting.

The team said the mismanagement by the KPU had caused Kalla to lose 24 million votes.

"We believe Kalla should have had 39 million votes, putting him in second position," said team member Chairuman Harahap.

Therefore, he went on, a runoff election should be held between Kalla and Yudhoyono.

Amir Syamsudin, the legal counsel for Yudhoyono's team, chided the Megawati and Kalla camps for their "petty squabbling over second position".

"This only goes to show Yudhoyono is the true winner of the election," he said.

After Tuesday's hearing, Megawati, who had been in attendance, said she believed the Constitutional Court would issue a fair ruling.

"I'm here not only as a presidential candidate but also as a citizen seeking justice," she said.

"I hope the court gives a fair and wise decision regarding the election irregularities."