As of: February 14, 2024, 11:00 a.m
By: Sven Hauberg
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Indonesia will be ruled by former general Prabowo Subianto.
He is accused of serious human rights violations, but a majority has now elected him president.
The people of Indonesia decided for a new president in the first round of voting.
According to initial counts, former general and incumbent Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto has around 59 percent of the vote.
This is reported by the Jakarta Post,
among others
.
The former governor of Jakarta and ex-education minister Anies Baswedan came in second with around 24 percent, followed by the governor of the Central Java province, Ganjar Pranowo, who got around 17 percent.
The first official results are expected in the evening (local time).
Around 205 of the almost 280 million inhabitants of the fourth most populous country in the world were called to vote.
The large gap between the 72-year-old Prabowo and the other two candidates comes as a surprise.
Polls had put Prabowo at around 50 percent and predicted a runoff between him and independent candidate Anies Baswedan.
That won't happen now.
Prabowo Subianto had already tried to become Indonesia's president in 2014 and 2019, but was defeated by Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in both votes.
Widodo was the island nation's first president who did not come from the military or the old elites.
At the beginning of his second term, Jokowi made his long-term rival Prabowo his defense minister and now also supported him in the election campaign.
Prabowo Subianto becomes the new president of Indonesia.
The ex-general cast his vote on Wednesday in the city of Bogor, south of Jakarta.
© Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP
Indonesia: Prabowo wants to continue President Widodo's policies
Prabowo relies on continuity.
“I will continue all his programs.
I say that emphatically,” he recently announced to supporters, referring to incumbent Widodo.
Prabowo wants to further promote Indonesia's economy, which is currently growing at around five percent annually, through large-scale infrastructure projects such as high-speed lines.
He also wants to push ahead with the construction of the new Indonesian capital Nusantara on Borneo and make the resource-rich country one of the world's most important manufacturers of batteries for electric cars.
In terms of foreign policy, traditionally non-aligned Indonesia will “continue to balance its relations with China and the United States,” believes Kim Catechis, investment strategist at the Franklin Templeton Institute.
Prabowo is controversial because of his role during the regime of dictator Suharto, who ruled Indonesia until 1998.
As a soldier in an elite unit, Prabowo was involved in serious human rights violations in East Timor and in the kidnapping of democracy activists towards the end of the Suharto regime.
He was also married to one of Suharto's daughters for 15 years.
The USA had banned Prabowo from entering the country for years.
Pabowo's candidacy puts Indonesia's democracy under the "greatest pressure" since the end of the Suharto dictatorship, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch recently complained.
Social media plays a key role in Indonesia's election campaign
All three candidates relied heavily on social media during the election campaign to appeal to voters.
Prabowo portrayed himself as a “cute grandfather” on TikTok and gained millions of followers with short dance videos.
Observers such as political scientist Edbert Gani Suryahudaya from the Indonesian Center for Strategic and International Studies believe that Prabowo has managed to shake off his image as a general involved in human rights crimes.
“Today, people no longer see him as an army general, but as a man of the people,” Gani said recently in an interview with the
Frankfurter Rundschau
.
In addition, 55 percent of those eligible to vote are between 17 and 43 years old.
“These people have no memory of Indonesia under Suharto,” said Gani.
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The defeated candidate Ganjar Pranowo recently described the election campaign as “unfair” because incumbent Widodo had sided with Prabowo.
This is actually forbidden for incumbent presidents.
In addition, one of Widodo's brothers-in-law ensured that the country's highest court lowered the age limit for the office of vice president.
This enabled Widodo's 36-year-old son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to enter the race as Prabowo's deputy.
Observers fear that Widodo, who was not allowed to run again after two terms in office, wants to continue to exert influence on Indonesian politics in the future.
Prabowo Subianto's inauguration is scheduled for October 20.
In addition to a new president, the people of Indonesia also elected a new parliament on Wednesday.
Results are still pending.