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Presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri on Friday defended her choice of a running mate accused of human rights abuses, saying that he had taken responsibility and there was a need to move on.

Voters will go to the polls on Wednesday, with incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono well ahead of Megawati and a third candidate, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, in most opinion polls.

Megawati, 62, is running with Prabowo Subianto, who was fired from the Army in 1998 after troops under his command kidnapped and tortured pro-democracy activists during President Suharto’s rule. He is barred from entering the United States.

“Don’t forget that Prabowo has been stigmatized as a human rights abuser, but he has taken full responsibility for that and has moved on,” she told a lunch with foreign correspondents.

The pairing of former President Megawati and Prabowo would once have seemed unthinkable. As chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Megawati was the country’s leading opposition figure in the dying days of the Suharto era.

Prabowo, a former head of the Special Forces, was once married to one of Suharto’s daughters and was an integral part of the so-called New Order establishment under Suharto.

In a recent televised presidential debate, Megawati, the daughter of the nation’s first president, Sukarno, said she was the victim of human rights abuses in the past, but had “never retaliated.”

Several members of her party were among the activists kidnapped and tortured by the troops under Prabowo’s command but at least three have since joined his political party.

Asked about the kidnappings, Prabowo told foreign correspondents in February “my conscience is clear. I took full responsibility. I came before a military tribunal.”

The Megawati-Prabowo pairing took weeks of wrangling because both wanted to be president, with Megawati finally winning out. Both needed the support of each other’s party to run.

Their platform is secular and nationalist, while they have been seeking to win support of farmers and fishermen by pledging to push pro-poor policies.

Megawati, who has previously said she would take a tougher line on foreign investors, said that investors from overseas were welcome as long as it was on fair terms.

“Please, come to Indonesia to see what can be done here. But of course we know that in the past there were many weaknesses,” she said.

Megawati has previously questioned the impact on the country of a huge copper mine run by a unit of US firm Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold in Papua.

The mine has previously been a source of controversy over its environmental impact and the share of revenue that goes to Papuans.

“If we want to continue contracts, we need a shift and to create contracts that have a strong voice on the issue of the environment,” Megawati added.

Reuters