Jakarta governor election heads for run-off: official

The popular mayor of Solo city in Central Java province Joko Widodo won the July 11 vote with 42.60 percent while incumbent Fauzi Bowo trailed behind with 34.05 percent, the Jakarta electoral commission said in a press release.

"There was no candidate who secured more than 50 percent of the votes...so there will be a runoff. Joko Widodo and Fauzi Bowo will compete in the second round on September 20," it said.

Four other candidates who trailed behind Bowo were eliminated.

Widodo is backed by the country's second largest political party, the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), and the Great Indonesia Movement Party led by Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces commander.

Bowo ran with the support of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

The two contenders focused their campaign on the alleviation of the many problems faced by Southeast Asia's most populous city, especially a bare-bones public transportation system.

At least 1,000 new vehicles are added every day to about eight million already on the roads. According to the private Indonesian Transportation Society, traffic in the capital of the world's largest Muslim country is destined to turn into a massive gridlock by 2014.

Most people in the capital -- whose official 10 million population doubles with migrant workers on weekdays -- get around in jam-packed buses.