Indonesia Confirms Subianto Prabowo As Next President

Posted by: Eninu William in world news March 21, 2024

The defense minister of Indonesia, Subianto Prabowo, has been declared the winner of last month’s presidential election in the world’s third-largest democracy.

Mr Prabowo appealed for unity as his two rivals, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, vowed to contest the result.

The former general, who had been dogged by allegations of human rights abuse for decades, won 58.59% of the votes. He had endeared himself to social media-savvy voters with TikTok videos that cast him as a cuddly grandpa.

“For those who didn’t vote for us, give us a chance,” the 72-year-old said after the elections commission of Indonesia announced the official count on Wednesday night.

“We will prove that we are a president and vice president who will work as hard as possible for all the Indonesian people,” he said.

He will assume office in October, taking over from President Joko Widodo, who is more popularly known as Jokowi. Eighty percent of 205 million registered voters across 17,000 islands and three time zones trooped to polling centres last 14 February. This makes it the world’s largest single-day election.

Mr Prabowo’s votes exceeded the majority required to avoid a runoff. Mr Anies and Mr Ganjar got 25% and 16%, respectively.

Subianto Prabowo thanked the popular Jokowi, whose tacit backing is widely believed to have helped him win. The former general lost two presidential elections to Mr Jokowi in 2014 and 2019.

His running mate – now the vice president-elect – is Mr Jokowi’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka. He was only able to run after a last-minute lowering of a minimum age requirement.

Mr Subianto Prabowo claimed victory after the election on 14 February when unofficial tallies showed he had a strong lead over his rivals. World leaders have also congratulated him over the past weeks.

Opposition protests;

Anticipating protests from Mr Anies’ and Mr Ganjar’s supporters, police deployed more than 3,000 officers. This is to stand guard across the capital city Jakarta before official results were announced.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets in the past weeks alleging widespread election fraud.

Among other things, Mr Anies and Mr Ganjar had earlier alleged that Mr Gibran’s candidacy was a part of behind-the-scenes maneuvering that showed Mr Jokowi’s partiality to the Prabowo-Gibran camp.

Mr Anies said on Wednesday that there had been election irregularities. He added that his legal team would take it to court.

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