Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto gestures after casting his ballot to vote in the country's presidential and legislative elections at a polling station in Bogor on February 14, 2024. Indonesians began voting to choose a new president on February 14 with Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto emerging as the front-runner. It leads the largest economy in Southeast Asia despite concerns about its human rights record.
Yasuyoshi Chiba | AFP | Getty Images
Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, a former army general, appears to enjoy an unofficial early lead in the race to become the country's next president, “quick counts” and exit polls show as voting closes.
Prabowo appears to have won a simple majority of votes cast in Wednesday's election in the world's third-largest democracy, according to two independent early counts based on a sample of votes made available just hours after polls closed on Wednesday.
Former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan came in second place, with just under a quarter of the votes, while former Central Java Governor Jangar Pranowo came in third place, according to snap counts published by independent polling centres. Policy Index And SMRC.
Official results will not appear until at least a month later. The winner will replace President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, who will not stand in the election after serving the maximum 10-year term.
For a candidate to win outright, he must receive more than 50% of the national vote and at least 20% of ballots cast in more than half of Indonesia's 38 provinces on Wednesday. If no one makes it, Indonesians across the world's largest archipelago nation, which spans more than 17,000 islands, will head to a runoff between the best-performing candidates.
More than 200 million people were eligible to vote in only the sixth elections held in Indonesia since the Southeast Asian archipelago emerged from the military dictatorship under former President Suharto in the late 1990s.
The results of these elections could go some way to impacting democracy in Indonesia, while determining whether Southeast Asia's largest economy will reach advanced status by 2045. It is also unclear whether the new president will derail outgoing President Jokowi's plan. Widodo to move the national capital from Jakarta. to Nusantara or scale back ambitions to turn Indonesia into a global battery manufacturing hub.
— CNBC's Celestine Francis-Xavier contributed to this story.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.
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