On Wednesday, the people of Indonesia voted to choose their new president, vice president, and other government representatives in the world’s biggest election held in a single day.
World’s third-largest democracy
More than 200 million eligible voters make Indonesia the world’s third-biggest democracy, following the US and
India. Around 5,000 volunteers have been mobilized to supervise approximately 820,000 polling stations nationwide. On the legislative front, hundreds of thousands of candidates from 18 political parties are competing for over 20,000 positions.
One of the important candidates in the election is Prabowo Subianto, aged 72, who is a former military leader and currently serves as Indonesia’s defense minister. This is his third attempt at running for the presidency after losing to Jokowi in 2014 and 2019.
Another significant candidate is Ganjar Pranowo, aged 55, who previously served as the governor of Central Java
and is a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). The PDI-P is known as a “secular nationalist political party” and supported Jokowi’s presidential campaigns in 2014 and 2019. The party is led by Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Presidential candidates must secure more than 50% of the total popular votes to win and obtain at least 20% of the votes in over half of Indonesia’s provinces.
Controversial candidate of Indonesia
Prabowo Subianto is currently ahead in the polls despite his controversial history. However, he has faced criticism for his military career and has been accused, though never formally charged, of involvement in the kidnappings
of over 20 pro-democracy activists in the late 1990s, with around a dozen of them still missing.
Prabowo Subianto has faced allegations of human rights abuses in East Timor and Papua. He was discharged from the military in 1998 and was barred from entering the United States until 2020, when he assumed the position of defense minister under Jokowi. Additionally, his running mate, 36-year-old Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is also labeled as a “controversial” candidate.
Comments 1