JAKARTA - Campaigning for Indonesia's third general elections since the fall of the Suharto dictatorship got under way Monday with the global economic crisis squarely at the forefront of voters' concerns.

Representatives of 38 parties met at an exhibition hall in the capital Jakarta to sign a joint declaration promising a peaceful campaign period leading up to the April 9 polls in the world's third-largest democracy.

The vote is taking place against slowing growth in Southeast Asia's biggest economy as demand for Indonesia's commodities exports plummets amid the world financial meltdown.

"I hope the political parties will not insult or violate each other in a way that could disintegrate into anarchy," National Election Committee head Hafiz Anshary told the assembled party leaders.

"We can prove to the world that Indonesia is a well-mannered country with standards and integrity."

Major parties are expected to hold massive campaign rallies over the next 21 days and hundreds of thousands of police have been deployed to ensure security for the country's 171 million registered voters.

"We are deploying two-thirds of our force of 400,000 personnel in order to secure this celebration of democracy," deputy national police chief Makbul Padmanagara told the party delegates.

Indonesia has posted strong growth of about six percent a year since the end of the Suharto military dictatorship in 1998, marking the start of the "Reformasi" era of democratic change.

But growth is expected to slow to about four percent this year on the back of a sharp decline in exports, which fell 36 percent year-on-year in January.

A decade of growth has made a handful of people incredibly wealthy and there is now a burgeoning middle class, but millions of poor Indonesians have seen little change in their daily lives since the end of the Suharto era.

Many do not understand what they are voting for and parties have been criticised for failing to spell out their policies on key issues such as the economy, corruption and management of the archipelago's vast natural resources.

Vote buying is rampant and candidates have complained that voters are offering to sell their support to the highest bidder.

"Almost none of the parties contesting the legislative elections have laid out a comprehensive vision for taking the nation forward, much less a program that identifies priorities they will pursue if elected," The Jakarta Globe daily said in an editorial.

The outcome of the polls will have huge bearing on presidential elections set for July.

Parties need 25 percent of the popular vote or 20 percent of seats in the 560-seat House of Representatives to be able to nominate their own candidates for president.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is seeking a second term on a platform of good governance, social stability and economic growth.

"Let us have a good process of democracy and an orderly and well-mannered campaign," he said in a speech.

The centrist Democratic Party that the liberal ex-general founded in 2001 is on target to become the largest in the country, according to recent polls.

The Democrats looks set to sweep aside the more established Golkar -- Suharto's former political machine -- and the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, according to the polls.

A joint survey by four polling institutes released last week showed the Democrats with 21.52 percent of the vote compared to 15.51 percent for the PDI-P and 14.27 percent for Golkar.

Five other parties -- including those that claim to base their policies on Islamic teachings -- scored less than five percent.