Indonesia’s Prabowo claims victory in presidential election

JAKARTA: Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto declared victory in a presidential election on Wednesday after unofficial vote counts showed him with a huge lead, and on course for a single-round win in his third attempt at the presidency.

Political veteran Prabowo, a former special forces commander, trounced his rivals, winning about 58% of votes according to four pollsters, based on “quick count” ballots at samples of voting stations nationwide. The number of votes tallied ranged from about 86% to 95% as of 1400 GMT.

Appearing before supporters alongside his running mate, the incumbent president’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Prabowo, 72, declared the outcome “a victory for all Indonesians”, in a rousing speech that drew roars and applause.

“We are grateful for the quick count results. All the calculation, all pollsters including those on our rivals’ side, the figures showed a Prabowo-Gibran win in one round,” he said.

“We will assemble a government consisting of the best sons and daughters of Indonesia.”

Rivals Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo trailed with about 25% and 17% respectively, according to the independent pollsters conducting the sample counts, which in previous elections have proven to be accurate.

A preliminary count by the election commission was far slower and showed Prabowo securing 57.7% of votes with about 6% of ballots recorded.

The contest pitted the two popular former governors against the pre-election frontrunner Prabowo, who was feared in the 1990s as a top lieutenant of Indonesia’s late strongman ruler Suharto.

Crucially, Prabowo has the tacit backing of the wildly popular incumbent Joko Widodo, who is betting on his former rival as a continuity candidate to preserve his legacy, including the inclusion of his 36-year-old son Gibran on the ticket.

Anies and Ganjar urged the public not to draw conclusions on the outcome and to await the official result, which is expected by March 20 at the latest. Their campaign teams said they were investigating reports of electoral violations, both calling it “structural, systematic and massive fraud”. They did not provide evidence.

To win in a single round, a candidate needs more than 50% of votes cast and at least 20% of the ballot in half of the country’s provinces. If no candidate wins a majority, a runoff between the top two finishers will be held in June.

The world’s biggest single-day election saw nearly 259,000 candidates vie for 20,600 posts across the archipelago of 17,000 islands. In the legislative contest, a coalition of parties backing Prabowo had about 42% of votes, while an alliance behind rival Anies had 27%, indicating a potential Prabowo government could have strong parliamentary backing.

But top billing on Wednesday was always the race to replace Jokowi, as the incumbent is known, whose influence could be the decisive factor in who takes the helm of a resource-rich Group of 20 economy of at least $1.3 trillion.