JAKARTA, August 2 (AP): Lawyers for a former general demanded Monday that
Indonesia's highest court award him one of the two spots in the presidential
election run-off next month, saying polling irregularities were to blame for his poor showing in the first round of voting.

Lawyers for Wiranto, a former general and security minister who finished third in the July 5 poll, said Wiranto should replace second-place finisher - incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri - in the run-off against top vote-getter Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Lawyers for the election commission said Wiranto's appeal, which the Constitutional Court began hearing Monday, was "bewildering" and littered with
inaccuracies and contained no witness statements supporting its allegations.

A Wiranto victory would lead to political uncertainty and could spark violence from supporters of Megawati, who is scheduled to face Yudhoyono in the Sept. 20 run-off. A decision on Wiranto's challenge isn't expected until next week.

Yudhoyono, also a former security minister, finished on top in the July election with 33.58% of the vote, followed by Megawati with 26.29% and Wiranto with
22.21%.

"The petitioner is of the opinion that there were mistakes in the vote count that caused him to lose support and as a result not enter the second round of the presidential elections," Wiranto's lawyer Yan Junada Saputra told the nine-judge panel.

Saputra asked judges to "declare the election commission results invalid" and
certify the defense's findings that Wiranto's vote count was about 5 million higher than the election commission tally - enough to beat Megawati.

Last week, Wiranto's lawyers said they would present evidence showing - among
other irregularities - that poll workers inflated other candidates' results and voters were pressured or bribed to choose certain candidates.

Election commission lawyer Amir Syamsuddin said the appeal was littered with
"inaccuracies and misleading data. We are bewildered that this election which
has been so open and had so many observers...can be disputed."

Andi Asrun, an assistant to the court, said the judges had the power to overturn the election commission results if the evidence presented was strong enough to show any fraud affected the final result.

Wiranto has also filed an appeal to the Supreme Court alleging inconsistencies in a polling day recount of millions of ballots originally deemed invalid because they were punched twice.