A former army general with a controversial past is on course to win Indonesia’s election, securing the majority of votes needed for an outright victory, early unofficial results showed.
Prabowo Subianto, 72, billed as the frontrunner ahead of Wednesday’s vote, is placed to secure more than 50% of the vote – avoiding a runoff, according to state-owned news organization Antara, citing early quick counts
CNN cannot independently verify the early polls, though counts by reputable thinktanks have proved accurate during previous Indonesian elections.
Ballot stations closed across the country early on Wednesday afternoon. Indonesia’s election agency will not publish official results until March. Deadly riots broke out after the last election in 2019 when Prabowo, who lost, contested the results.
A former army general with a controversial past is on course to win Indonesia’s election, securing the majority of votes needed for an outright victory, early unofficial results showed.
Prabowo Subianto, 72, billed as the frontrunner ahead
Young voters will be decisive
CNN cannot independently verify the early polls, though counts by reputable thinktanks have proved accurate during previous Indonesian elections.
Ballot stations closed across the country early on Wednesday afternoon. Indonesia’s election agency will not publish official results until March. Deadly riots broke out after the last election in 2019 when Prabowo, who lost, contested the results.Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and home to the world’s largest Muslim population. More than 200 million people across 38 provinces were eligible to cast their votes on Wednesday, in what was billed as the world’s biggest single-day election.
However, running a vote in the world’s largest archipelagic nation is a huge effort. The country is wider than the United States and straddles three time zones. It is made up of over 18,000 islands and islets, of which 6,000 are inhabited, and over 150 languages spoken across its breadth.
Young voters have been key to this year’s vote, experts note, with around half of registered voters being under the age of 40, according to the General Election Commission.
CNN
