A former general will be the next president of Indonesia

2024-03-20 16:02:02

JAKARTA (AP) — Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces general with ties to Indonesia’s current president and the past dictatorship, was confirmed winner of last month’s election after defeating two former governors who have vowed to challenge the results in court. .

Subianto won with 58.6% of the vote, while former Jakarta province governor Anies Baswedan received 24.9% and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo received 16.5%, the General Commission said on Wednesday. Electoral once the scrutiny is completed.

In Indonesia, the results of an election can be challenged before the Constitutional Court no more than three days after the official announcement.

The other two candidates have denounced fraud and irregularities in the electoral process, such as the vice-presidential candidacy of the son of the current president, Joko Widodo. The popular outgoing president is serving his second term and could not run again, but his son’s candidacy was seen as tacit support for Subianto.

Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is 37 years old but became Subianto’s running mate after the Constitutional Court made an exception to the rule that every candidate must be at least 40 years old. The president of the Constitutional Court, who is Widodo’s brother-in-law, was later removed by an ethics commission for not recusing himself and for making last-minute changes to the requirements to be a candidate.

Subianto, who is Widodo’s defense minister, had already declared himself the winner on election day, when unofficial projections gave him almost 60% of the votes.

Turnout for the Feb. 14 election was about 80%, the commission said.

Subianto won in 36 of the 38 provinces and received 96.2 million votes compared to 40.9 million for Baswedan, who came in second and won in two provinces.

1710950828
#general #president #Indonesia