Muslim-majority Indonesia goes to the polls in crucial general election

Indonesian is preparing to vote on Wednesday in one of the world's biggest one-day polls across a vast archipelago of 260 million.

Over 190 million registered voters in the Muslim-majority country will cast their votes in just eight hours of polling, with the election commission battling torrential downpours, voter fraud and damaging cyber attacks.

The world's third-largest democracy is staging a first for its two-decade-old system, which rose from the ashes of a military-backed dictatorship: holding presidential, parliamentary and local polls all in one day.

"This is a very big country so we'll do our best," Arief Budiman, the commission's chief, told a recent gathering of journalists and diplomats. "But we're very busy this year."

Current president Joko Widodo will be facing off against ex-general Prabowo Subianto for the top job, a re-run of the 2014 election contest narrowly won by Widodo.

Dipping their fingers in halal ink to prevent double voting, Indonesians will cast their ballots in a bitterly contested presidential election, with Subianto already threatening to challenge the result over voter-fraud claims.

Election re-run

Widodo's landmark 2014 victory capped a remarkable rise for the 57-year-old who shot to prominence when he was elected governor of the capital Jakarta in 2012.

He is praised for his drive to build up Indonesia's infrastructure and expand health and development schemes but his rights record has come under scrutiny.

Widodo has also been accused of creeping authoritarianism following arrests of opposition campaigners and a revised law that let Jakarta ban mass organisations.

Widening inequality and a slump in the currency have sparked criticism of Widodo's economic stewardship, despite annual growth of about five percent and low inflation.

Widodo narrowly beat his rival Subianto five years ago, his once-huge lead narrowing to just a few points by polling day.

Prabowo Subianto has tried and failed to win high office several times over the past 15 years but his ambitions have been dogged by a dark past.

Subianto ordered the abduction of democracy activists in the dying days of the dictator's rule in 1998 and has been accused of committing atrocities in East Timor.

A horse is needed to transport ballot boxes to a remote village in East Java [AFP/Getty]

Ballot box by elephant

Officials have been distributing cardboard ballot boxes, guarded by armed security staff, to every corner of the 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometre) long archipelago, which is home to hundreds of ethnic groups and languages.

While elephants carried ballot boxes through Sumatra's Aceh province, horses were used to reach to remote communities in the southeast corner of Java island.

A record 245,000 candidates - from the presidency down to local legislator positions - are vying for public office.

The polls kick off early Wednesday at more than 800,000 ballot stations staffed by millions of election officials, starting in easternmost Papua where a separatist insurgency has simmered for decades.

Security will be tight in parts of the mountainous region after rebels massacred more than a dozen employees at a state-backed contractor in December.

To help tens of millions of voters work out who to vote for, a mobile phone app was created by the commission to give Indonesians details about every candidate and their policies.

The agency, which has discounted opposition claims of millions of voter-list irregularities, is also battling repeated cyber attacks that threaten to disrupt the vote.

Some were purportedly launched by hackers in Russia and China, though it declined to confirm those claims.