Candidates backed by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto have dominated the country’s regional elections except for the coveted Jakarta gubernatorial seat, where early results show an opposition-backed figure in the lead.
Analysts say the unofficial results of Wednesday’s vote reflect the sweeping influence of Prabowo’s grand Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) and provide the president with a smoother pathway in advancing his economic growth agenda over the next five years.
However, in the capital Jakarta, the country’s political and economic hub, opposition-backed candidate Pramono Anung has taken the lead in quick-count results from independent pollsters.
Pramono is supported by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the only major party that has not formally joined Prabowo’s coalition, which controls about 80 per cent of parliamentary seats.
“This was [potentially] a politically important win for the PDI-P because it took a real beating in the legislative elections,” said Ian Wilson, an Indonesian politics researcher at Murdoch University’s Indo-Pacific Research Centre in Perth.
The PDI-P had been the ruling party in Indonesia for the past decade, winning two consecutive presidential elections with Joko Widodo.