Indonesia's Prabowo Subianto wins presidential election, confirms Election Commission

Jakarta: Prabowo Subianto has been elected as the President of Indonesia, after a decisive win against two rivals who have vowed to file a legal complaint about the voting.

Defence Minister Prabowo and his vice presidential running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, received a majority of votes in the February 14 first round, winning 59 per cent, or more than 96 million votes, General Elections Commission, Chairperson Hasyim Asy'ari said on Wednesday.

Anies Baswedan secured nearly 41 million votes, or 25 per cent of the total count, while Ganjar Pranowo received 27 million votes, more than 16 per cent.

Prabowo, a former special forces commander, is expected to take over from outgoing President Joko Widodo, Gibran's father, in October after a transition period.

The 72-year-old swept the election on promises of continuing Widodo's policies, riding on the president's popularity and using social media platforms like TikTok to tap the support of Indonesia's huge young voter base, according to Al Jazeera.

Notably, Prabowo had already claimed victory in the election after unofficial vote counts showed him with a significant lead over his rivals.

"We should not be arrogant. We should not be proud. We should not be euphoric. We still have to be humble. This victory must be a victory for all Indonesian people," he said at the time in a speech broadcast on national television.
After the results, his rivals Anies and Ganjar have said that they plan to submit a complaint to the Constitutional Court about "irregularities" and allegations of fraud during the general election.

Prabowo's legal team, however, is confident the result will not be successfully challenged because of his wide margin of victory, local media reported on Tuesday.

However, the road to Prabowo's win was marred by controversies and concerns about patronage politics over his alliance with the president, popularly known as Jokowi, who was widely accused of abusing his position to favour his former rival. But the allegations were denied by his allies.

Prabowo too has been accused of human rights abuses in East Timor, which won independence from Indonesia in 2002 after the collapse of the Soeharto government, and in Indonesia's troubled eastern region of Papua, as reported by Al Jazeera.

On the campaign trail, Prabowo and Gibran pledged to continue the policies of Gibran's father, who retained an approval rating of about 80 per cent but was barred from running again because of the term limit in the Constitution.

The new leaders will inherit an economy that grew a little more than 5 per cent last year and has a slate of ambitious infrastructure projects, including the transfer of the capital from Jakarta to the island of Borneo.