He is also close to one of the candidates, Amien Rais, a Muslim leader.
One other nationally known figure has declared presidential ambitions: Amien Rais, former leader of the 28-million-strong, urban-based Muslim organization Muhammadiyah.
The three most prominent--Megawati, Gus Dur and Amien Rais--have yet to prove that they are capable of changing things for the better.
Leading politicians, such as Amien Rais, the speaker of the country's highest legislature, say its loss would be tantamount to the end of Indonesia as a nation.
Amien Rais, leader of the 28-million-strong Muhammadiyah Islamic organization and a self-proclaimed presidential candidate, has said that Indonesia cannot overcome its economic crisis until Suharto leaves office.
Parliamentary heavyweights Amien Rais and Akbar Tandjung have rallied Muslim anger in the capital in a show of strength aimed at Wahid and his Vice President, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Indonesia: A Wasteland Called Peace
These include Islamist groups, led by the United Development Party, as well as two strong parties with secular factions: Amien Rais's National Mandate Party and Abdurrahman Wahid's National Awakening Party.
It would include prominent opposition figures, among them Amien Rais and Abdurrahman Wahid, the leaders of the two largest Muslim organisations, and Megawati Sukarnoputri, the popular daughter of Indonesia's first president.
Even Amien Rais, a rabble-rouser who will chair the August assembly and is one of the president's fiercest critics, appears to accept that, after this reshuffle, Mr Wahid should be given a further year.
Combined with those of two of Miss Megawati's potential coalition partners Abdurrahman Wahid's National Awakening Party and Amien Rais's National Mandate Party the main opposition forces appeared to be capturing around 60% of the vote in the early going.
Pundits may debate whether Habibie will be forced to give way to martial law and a military junta led by armed-forces chief General Wiranto, or to a more progressive coalition of opposition figures like Amien Rais and Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Habibie one day, then the next with fellow Muslim oppositionist Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party (PAN in Indonesian) as well as Muslim-linked United Development Party (PPP) head Hamzah Haz, whose party is expected to ally with Habibie's ruling Golkar.
Meanwhile, riots erupted in Bali, a Megawati stronghold, and Solo, Central Java, where demonstrators reportedly burned down two banks and the residence of a relative of Amien Rais, the leader of the Muslim-linked National Mandate Party and chairman of the MPR.
While they huddled in their chamber, several of Indonesia's most popular politicians including Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of the country's first president, and Amien Rais, the head of a large Islamic group were forced to hold a separate meeting because they are not members of the assembly.
But the divisions between Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's first leader, Abdurrahman Wahid, leader of a large rural Muslim group and a champion of secular Islam, and Amien Rais, who is popular among urban Muslims and has recently been preaching a secular message of national unity, have long prevented them from pulling it off.
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