JAKARTA, April 6: The former party of ousted Indonesian strongman Suharto was marginally ahead in vote counting on Tuesday following elections, but with less than two percent 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 percent of the vote, was neck-and-neck with Golkar at 18.42 percent.

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

"It looks like PDI-P has been abandoned by some people who voted for it in 1999," said Rustam Ibrahim, head of the Institute for Social and Economic Research, which helped run the survey.

"Actually, Golkar has not reaped any gain... What they have done is maintain that level." In the 1999 parliamentary vote, Ms Megawati's PDI-P was first with 34 percent. Golkar won 22.5 percent.

Investors shrugged off the painfully slow official count, pushing the Jakarta stock market up nearly three percent on Tuesday. Election observers said any reliable indication of the winner could take as long as a week.

The result of Monday's election in the world's most populous Muslim nation will shape the race for the country's first direct presidential vote in July. With no candidate likely to win a majority in that election, coalition-building will be crucial in the run-up to the vote.

The Democrat Party of Megawati's former security minister, who quit during a row with her last month, was third in vote counting with 12.07 percent, a strong showing given its status as a new party. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an Islamic party that campaigned on a strong anti-corruption message, was fourth.

"We don't expect any meaningful information for probably five to seven days," said Hank Valentino of the U.S.-based International Foundation for Election Systems. -Reuters