Jakarta। Indonesia is voting for a new president and members of parliament on Wednesday.
Nearly 205 million people are eligible to vote, with the winner set to lead the world’s third-largest democracy and Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.
Here are some key facts about the vote in the archipelago that extends over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) from east to west. The election will pit 72-year-old former general and current defence minister Prabowo Subianto seen as part of the country’s old political elite against two candidates running for the first time.
He will run against former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and ex-Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan. The new leader will succeed President Joko Widodo, who has ruled the archipelago for a decade. Subianto is entering the race for the third time with Widodo’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, as his running mate.
The defence chief has gained a wide lead in polls with a campaign that has largely promised to continue Widodo’s policies. Baswedan, 54, is the only candidate who is not a member of a political party and some polls saw the former education minister rise to second place after initially placing last. Pranowo, 55, was nominated by Widodo’s ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and in recent polls he dropped from runner-up to third place. A key question in the election will be whether Widodo’s successor will carry out his legacy move of relocating the capital from traffic-clogged and sinking Jakarta to Nusantara, a new city on Borneo island.
Nusantara, set to cost billions of dollars, is scheduled to begin operating as Indonesia’s new political centre in August. More than half of eligible voters around 106 million people are under 40 years old, according to general election commission data. All three candidates have used social media platforms, including popular Chinese-owned app TikTok, turning online campaigns into another battleground to attract young voters.
