Jakarta: Prabowo, Gibran on their way to win in a single round
While it will take days before final results are in, the former general is projected to win around 60 per cent of votes. “Indonesians want harmony among their leaders,” he told his supporters.
Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Vote count in Indonesia’s elections is largely confirming what surveys predicted before the poll. Four different projections give former General Prabowo Subianto around 60 per cent of the vote while final results will take days before they are all in.
Prabowo’s two challengers, Anies Baswedan, the former governor of Jakarta, and Ganjar Pranowo are respectively at 25 and 16 per cent. The latter is running for the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan), which outgoing President Joko Widodo left.
If early results are confirmed, Prabowo will be elected in the first round with President Joko Widodo’s 38-year-old son Gibran Rakabuming Raka as his VP. The latter’s selection was highly controversial.
Indonesian electoral law has two requirements in the presidential election: to win, a candidate must get 50 per cent of the popular vote and 20 per cent of the vote in at least 20 of the country’s 38 provinces.
As pollsters predicted, Prabowo has likely met both targets. This will secure him the presidency of the world’s most populous Muslim majority country. In the two previous elections, Joko the 72-year-old retired general was defeated by Widodo who nevertheless picked him in 2019 to be his defence minister.
At a post-election rally in Jakarta, Prabowo thanked the crowd of cheering supporters, many of them young people. Almost half of Indonesia’s 205 million voters are under the age of 40.
Prabowo won thanks to a massive social media campaign that turned a former general accused of human rights violations under the Suharto dictatorship into a Tik Tok star, with an impromptu dance and an animated avatar as the trademarks of his presidential race.
Equally decisive was the support of Joko Widodo, who forced through legal changes that allowed his son Gibran to run on the same ticket for the vice presidency.
Prabowo showed the audience that he had changed a lot, no longer as short-tempered as before.
“The campaign is over; we must unite once more,” Prabowo told his supporters this evening, while urging everyone to wait for the final results.
“Indonesians want harmony among their leaders and adherence to traditions and the teachings of our elders to seek friendly relationship rather than enmity. Indonesian culture does not favour disparaging one another.”
The elections went off without any major incidents, a positive outcome for Indonesian society, despite heated debates among various groups on social media.
In a few sub-districts in Central Java, voting was halted or even rescheduled due to massive flooding.
Together with the new president, voters chose 580 members of the country’s House of Representatives as well as more than 20,000 local officials.
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13/02/2024 19:12
05/02/2024 17:10
