JAKARTA, May 30: Thousands of people took to the streets in East Java towns over the lead of the ruling Golkar party in the Indonesian election, police and residents said on Friday.

And in a province on Sumatra island some polling stations had to repeat the votecount after hundreds of people threatened violence.

Thousands of people took part in riots in Sampang, the main city on the island of Madura, off the northern coast of East Java, police said.

``The unrest was pretty widespread,'' Sergeant Suhardi of the Sampang police told this agency, adding that calm was only restored after midnight.

A resident said people were apparently angered by preliminary results which showed an overwhelming lead for Golkar.

Madura is a Muslim stronghold and has thousands of avid supporters of the Muslim-led United Development Party (PPP).

Police said mobs damaged the local administrative office, the house of a local administrator, and several shops and vehicles. Twenty-four people were detained, they added.

The Jayakarta daily reported that the unrest spread to neighbouring towns. It said trouble started in the early afternoon when some residents demanded a new vote after the count showed a lead for President Suharto's party.

Hundreds of people also protested in four other towns in East Java known as Muslim strongholds, PPP official Abdurrachman of the Situbondo, East Java branch told this agency.

Abdurrachman said four Situbondo polling stations were destroyed after polling officials allegedly counted ballots at the local government office instead of at the public polling stations.

He said there were similar incidents in the towns of Jember, Pasuruan and Magetan.

Hundreds of people threatened to attack a polling station in Bandarlampung, in Lampung province, and demanded a recount after the first tally showed 654 votes for Golkar and only one each for the PPP and the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI), Jayakarta reported.

The recount showed that the PPP had 84 votes while Golkar clinched 727 and the PDI three votes, Jayakarta said.

A source at the military headquarters at the Lampung provincial capital told this agency there was a recount in one polling station ``because people were dissatisfied.''

One person was stabbed in the Bandarlampung incident, Jayakarta reported, but the military source denied the report.

Golkar was heading for a landslide victory in the election, in which 124 million voters were eligible with three officially recognised parties, Golkar, the PPP and the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI).

As of 10.31 am (0331 GMT) official National Election Institute figures showed that Golkar had 70,561,667 of the 96,052,382 votes counted, 56.9 percent of the registered number of voters.

Golkar has been widely criticized for using government officials and facilities to gain support in the election. Civil servants and their families are required to vote for Golkar.

The 27-day election campaign period, which ended last Friday, was marred by daily unrest and dubbed the most violent since President Suharto came to power in the mid 1960s. Voters in each province vote for the party, rather than individual candidates, With the seats being distributed according to a party list in proportion to the votes cast.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.