Megawati picks Hasyim as her running mate

As the leader of Indonesia's largest Islamic group, the moderate 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), he could help bring her crucial support from Muslim voters in the presidential election on July 5.

The pairing also undercut one of her toughest rivals, retired general Wiranto, whose reinvigorated Golkar Party came up tops in the April 5 parliamentary poll. He had also been courting the cleric.

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The President introduced her vice-presidential candidate in a nationally-televised ceremony at a park in central Jakarta where her father, Indonesia's first president Sukarno, proclaimed national independence in 1945.