Prabowo Subianto, the minister of defence for Indonesia, announced his victory in the presidential election after a preliminary tallying of the votes revealed a sizable advantage over his opponents.
Four pollsters estimated that the 72-year-old former special forces commander, who has previously stood for president twice, had roughly 58% of the vote based on "quick count" ballots from sampling of voting locations across the country. Between 86% and 95% of the votes had been counted as of Wednesday at 14:00 GMT, according to Al Jazeera.
Rivals Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo trailed with roughly 25% and 17%, respectively, according to the independent pollsters who conducted the counts. These results accurately depict the outcomes of the nation's prior presidential elections since direct voting was instituted in 2004.
Approximately 6% of ballots were counted in the electoral commission's preliminary tally, which saw Prabowo receiving 57.7% of the total.
After declaring his victory, Prabowo spoke to his fans and expressed his gratitude for the prompt outcomes.
“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 in a speech broadcast on national television.
The public was asked by Ganjar and Anies to wait for the official result, which should be known by no later than March 20. Both of their campaign teams claimed to be looking into allegations of electoral irregularities and referred to it as "structural, systematic, and massive fraud" without offering any supporting documentation.
A candidate needs to receive at least 20% of the vote in half of the provinces and more than 50% of the total votes cast in order to win in a single round of voting. A June run-off between the top two finishers will take place if no candidate secures a majority of the vote.
The election had the two well-liked former governors competing against Prabowo, the pre-election favourite who, significantly, had the support of the well-liked incumbent Joko Widodo.
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