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JAKARTA, Indonesia >> Indonesians voted for a new president Wednesday as the world’s third-largest democracy aims to become a global economic power a quarter of a century after emerging from a brutal dictatorship. .
Voting ended on Wednesday afternoon, with no major issues reported across the archipelago. Early, unofficial results were expected to be released by the end of the day by a rapid counting body accredited by the General Election Commission. Official final results are expected to arrive within about a month.
Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, the leading candidate in pre-election polls, was the only candidate with ties to the Suharto era. He was a special forces commander at the time and has been accused of human rights abuses, which he vehemently denies.
Two former governors, Anis Baswedan and Ganjar Planowo, were also vying to succeed the hugely popular President Joko Widodo, who is serving his second and final term. Widodo’s rise to the presidency from a riverside slum demonstrated the vibrancy of Indonesia’s democracy in a region plagued by dictatorships.
Widodo’s successor will inherit an economy that has experienced remarkable growth and ambitious infrastructure projects, including moving the capital from congested Jakarta to the remote island of Borneo at a staggering cost of more than $30 billion. become.
The election is also a high stakes for the United States and China, as Indonesia has a huge domestic market, natural resources such as nickel and palm oil, and diplomatic influence with its Southeast Asian neighbors.
The logistics of voting on 17,000 islands in this tropical country of 270 million people were daunting. Ballot boxes and ballots were transported by boat, motorcycle, horse, and in some remote areas on foot.
Severe thunderstorms flooded several streets in Jakarta in the early hours of Wednesday. Last week, elections were postponed in 10 villages due to damage caused by heavy rains in Demak regency, Central Java province.
In one of the world’s largest elections, tens of thousands of candidates competed for approximately 20,000 positions in national, state, and local legislatures in addition to the presidential position, but authorities said the election concluded without any major problems. Announced. Approximately 10,000 candidates from 18 political parties were aiming for just 580 seats in parliament.
Voters interviewed by The Associated Press expressed hope that the next leader will help them achieve greater prosperity in a country where nearly a tenth of the population still lives in poverty.
“I hope Indonesia will develop better and I hope I didn’t vote for the wrong person,” said Indra Nurohim, a 17-year-old high school student who became a first-time voter. “I hope we have a better government.”
Official vote tallying is a painstaking process that can take about a month, but early results, based on a sampling of registered private polls and research groups, are considered a reliable indicator of the final outcome. I am. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the presidential election will proceed to a runoff on June 26.
Mr. Subianto, the oldest presidential candidate at 72 years old, lost to Mr. Widodo in the previous two elections, but was the favorite in independent polls. He selected Mr Widodo’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabumin Raka, as his running mate, a move that could improve his chances given the outgoing president’s popularity.
Laka, 36, was allowed to run after the Constitutional Court made an exception to the minimum age requirement of 40 years. At the time, the court was presided over by Mr. Widodo’s brother-in-law, but Mr. Widodo was dismissed by the Ethics Committee for not resigning. Mr. Widodo stated: He was accused of favoritism and nepotism.
Critics say Mr Widodo is the first president outside the political and military elite since the end of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998, which was marked by widespread human rights abuses, looting and political instability. has accused the country of trying to build a political dynasty.
Subianto, a former lieutenant general who is married to one of Suharto’s daughters, was for many years the commander of an army special forces unit called Kopassus. He was dishonorably released in 1998 after Kopassus forces kidnapped and tortured Suharto’s political opponents.
Of the at least 22 activists kidnapped that year, 13 are still missing, and their families hold weekly protests outside the presidential palace demanding accountability for the activists. Subianto was never tried and strongly denied his involvement, but several of his subordinates were tried and convicted.
During the campaign that ended last weekend, Subianto and his strategists used AI and social media platforms like TikTok to soften his image as a kind grandfatherly figure to young vice presidential candidates. Rejected by human rights activists, he danced on the campaign stage, promising to create nearly 20 million jobs in his first term if elected.
Baswedan is a former rector of Islamic University and served as governor of Jakarta until last year. Baswedan, a former Fulbright scholar, served as Minister of Education and Culture from 2014 to 2016, but President Widodo removed him from the cabinet for failing to address the issue of thousands of students affected by the bushfires. I removed it.
Baswedan opposes Widodo’s plan to move Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta to Nusantara on the island of Borneo. The plan includes cutting down lush rainforest to make way for government buildings and residential areas.
In an interview with The Associated Press last month, he said Indonesia’s democracy was under threat after Subianto chose the president’s son as his running mate.
“This means a decline in trust, it means a decline in the quality of democracy, it means a lot of legal rules are being bent,” he said.
Mr. Pranowo is the ruling party’s candidate, but he does not have the support of Mr. Widodo. He served as a member of parliament for the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle for 10 years before being elected to the first of two terms as governor of the vote-rich Central Java province in 2013.
During his tenure as governor, Pranowo rejected Israel’s participation in the U-20 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in the state. FIFA subsequently removed Indonesia from hosting the match, angering Indonesian soccer fans and Widodo.
Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
Under Widodo, Indonesia has achieved impressive annual growth of 5%, with the exception of 2020, when the economy shrank due to the coronavirus pandemic.
His economic roadmap, dubbed “Golden Indonesia 2045,” predicts Indonesia will become one of the world’s top five economies with a GDP of up to $9 trillion, exactly a century after winning independence from its Dutch colony. are doing.
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