Jakarta, April 6 (Reuters): The former party of ousted Indonesian strongman Suharto was marginally ahead in vote counting today following elections, but with less than 2 per cent of the ballots tallied the race was wide open.

By early evening, with nearly two million votes counted, President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesia Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), with 18.39 per cent of the vote, was neck-and-neck with Golkar at 18.42 per cent.

A survey based on tallies at 1,461 randomly picked polling stations in 32 provinces showed that Golkar won 22.7 per cent of the vote, while Megawati’s party came second with 18.8 per cent.

In the 1999 parliamentary vote, Megawati’s PDI-P was first with 34 per cent, while Golkar won 22.5 per cent.