 "Indonesia polls: From top candidates to major issues, what you need to know")
Indonesia is set to go to the polls on Wednesday. The world’s third-largest democracy and biggest Muslim-majority nation will pick the successor to its President Joko Widodo. Widodo is a popular president who is serving his second and final term. But who are the candidates running? And what are the major issues? Let’s take a closer look: What do we know about the polls? As per Al Jazeera, this will be the world’s biggest single-day polls. It’s not just the president and vice-president that will be picked. Parliamentary and local legislatures are also up for grabs. Indonesia has 18 political parties and 575 seats in its parliament.
Of the 277 million people in Indonesia, over 204 million are eligible to vote.
“The anatomy of the sheer numbers of voters involved makes the Indonesian election the largest one-day election in the world,” Titi Anggraini, an advisory board member of the Association for Elections and Democracy and a constitutional law lecturer at Universitas Indonesia, told Al Jazeera. “The combination of simultaneous elections with an open proportional system which is carried out manually also makes the Indonesian election one of the most complicated and complex elections in the world.” Indonesia, like some other nations, has deemed election day as a public holiday. This results in turnout usually being high. In 2019, that figure was 81 per cent, as per Al Jazeera. As per The Guardian, over half of eligible voters are between the ages of 17 and 40. A third are under the age of 30. “Half of the active voters are young people. So it’s a very, very big demographic,” 18-year-old Nafis Athallah, from Medan, North Sumatra, told the newspaper. Nearly 90 per cent of the population is Muslim. There are just under a million Christians in Jakarta, out of around 10 million people. Christians hold around 14 per cent of seats in the national legislature, while comprising below nine per cent of the general population. However, they face constant questions about their faith. A national quota system requiring that women comprise 30 per cent of candidates has been in place since 2004. While it has indeed helped more women get elected, it has constantly fallen short of its own targets. Since 2004, the number of seats held by women in the national parliament has climbed from around eight per cent to just over 21 per cent according to World Bank figures. In provincial and district legislatures, women comprise 18 per cent and 15 per cent respectively, according to the General Election Commission. In 25 of Indonesia’s 167 district parliaments, no women at all were elected in 2019. Who are the candidates? There are three main candidates for the presidency. Defence minister Prabowo Subianto is considered the front-runner. Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, two ex-provincial governors, are also in the race. Prabowo has picked Widodo’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka – the 36-year-old Mayor of Surakarta – as his running mate. [caption id=“attachment_13486332” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, right, and his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of President Joko Widodo, wave at the media after registering their candidacy to run in the 2024 election, at the General Election Commission building in Jakarta on 25 October, 2023. AP[/caption] The defence minister and ex-commander Prabowo is the only candidate with links to the 1967-98 Suharto dictatorship, when he was a lieutenant general. “On 14 February, we will all determine the future of our children and grandchildren. … We strive to bring prosperity to all Indonesian people. We will continue what has been built by previous presidents,” Prabowo said at his final rally in a Jarkata stadium. A long-time commander in the Kopassus special forces, he was dishonorably discharged in 1998 after Kopassus soldiers kidnapped and tortured political opponents of Suharto, his then-father-in-law. Of 22 activists kidnapped that year, 13 remain missing. Prabowo never faced trial, although several of his men were tried and convicted. He went into self-exile in Jordan for several years before returning and founding the Gerindra Party in early 2008. He ran for the presidency twice, losing to current President Joko Widodo both times. He refused to acknowledge the results but accepted Widodo’s offer of the defence minister position in 2019, a bid for unity. Polls show 72-year-old Prabowo well ahead of his two rivals, though perhaps not with the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
Prabowo has had close ties with hardline Islamists whom he used to undermine his opponents.
He has vowed to continue Widodo’s economic development plan, in what experts view as an attempt to draw on Widodo’s popularity. He is strongly opposed by human rights activists, who associate him with torture and disappearances during the final years of the Suharto dictatorship. While he is the oldest candidate, his running mate Gibran is the youngest. Gibran is below the statutory minimum age of 40 but was allowed to run under an exception created by the Constitutional Court — then headed by Widodo’s brother-in-law — allowing current and former regional governors to run at age 35. They are pursuing youth support, with social media and video billboard campaigns featuring Pixar-style animated depictions of themselves. They’re meant to soften the image of the gruff-talking former general, who’s been accused of past human rights abuses, which he has denied. Even though they have held several massive in-person campaign events, the three contenders mostly campaigned through social media, reflecting increasing internet access even in rural areas. As per The Guardian, candidates are distributing K-pop tickets and populating their social media feeds with photos and videos of cats and viral dancing. Aisah Putri Budiatri, a political researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency, told The Guardian, “All candidates are actively utilising social media platforms, notably TikTok and Instagram, which predominantly attract young voters. This scenario contrasts with past elections, where campaign strategies tended to be more conventional.” It seems to be working on some voters. “They’re very cute and fun and it makes Prabowo look humble,” Tete, 19, a first-time voter from Wonosobo in Central Java, told the newspaper. Since mid-October 2023, support for Prabowo has continued to increase at the expense of his rivals. The Indikator Politik Indonesia agency said in its latest survey that it was possible that Prabowo and Gibran could could win outright in the first round, but it was also possible that the election would go to a runoff. The ex-governor Ganjar Pranowo is the governing party candidate, but does not have the support of Widodo, who has distanced himself from the party’s campaign and is seen as implicitly backing Prabowo and Gibran, his son. Pranowo was a national legislator for the governing Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle for 10 years before being elected in 2013 for the first of two terms as Central Java governor. While governor, he refused to allow Israel to participate in the Under-20 FIFA World Cup to be held in his province. FIFA subsequently dropped Indonesia as host of the games, triggering a backlash against Pranowo from soccer fans. Israel and Muslim-majority Indonesia do not have diplomatic ties.
He has been a less enthusiastic backer of Widodo’s policies than Prabowo.
“We want to develop Indonesia faster and continue the good things that have been done by the current government, to fix what is not good enough and to leave the bad ones,” Pranowo said. His running mate is Mohammad Mahfud, who resigned as security minister to focus on campaigning. He is also a former defence minister, justice minister and chief justice of the Constitutional Court. [caption id=“attachment_13715342” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A boy walks past posters bearing the images of Indonesia’s presidential candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo at a residential area in Jakarta. Reuters[/caption] Pranowo, a former governor of the province, held his final rallies in Surakarta and Semarang, in the area that is vital to his campaign. Speaking in Surakarta, Pranowo emphasised that he and his running mate Mahfud have listened to the people they met during the campaigns, such as those who questioned the high price of rice. “A leader cannot be silent if there are screams among the people,” Pranowo said. The ex-Fulbright scholar and education and culture minister Anies Baswedan, the former head of an Islamic university, served as governor of Jakarta until last year after winning a divisive election in 2017 against an ethnic Chinese Christian incumbent backed by Widodo. Anies, a former Fulbright scholar, had been education and culture minister from 2014 to 2016, when Widodo removed him from the Cabinet. Backed by conservative Muslim groups, he galvanised hundreds of thousands to take to the streets in 2016 against the Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who was then imprisoned on blasphemy charges after quoting the Quran in a speech. Anies was seen as using the controversy to successfully run for governor. His use of religious identity politics in the 2017 election distanced him from moderate Muslims. His choice of Muhaimin Iskandar as his running mate in Wednesday’s election is viewed as an attempt to rebuild that support. Iskandar’s Islam-based National Awakening Party has strong ties with Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, which boasts over 45 million members. Anies opposes Widodo’s signature plan to move Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta to Nusantara on the island of Borneo, about 2,000 kilometers away, which involves constructing government buildings and housing from scratch. He said in an interview with _The Associated Press l_ast month that democracy in Indonesia is declining, referring to Prabowo’s choice of Widodo’s son as his running mate, and pledged to get it back on track. “This means that there is a decline in trust, it means that our democracy is experiencing a decline in quality, it means that many legal rules are being bent,” he said. “Our responsibility is to work together to stop injustice, inequality and bring about change,” Anies said in front of tens of thousands of residents and the leaders of the political parties who support his race. What are the major issues? As per _Al Jazeera, t_he cost of living and unemployment are major issues. The country has witnessed its economic growth slowing from 5.30 per cent to 5 per cent. Meanwhile, unemployment in August was hovering at the 5.32 per cent mark.
Experts say human rights are another big issue.
Alex Arifianto, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, told Al Jazeera, “The student actions over the past few days have the potential to be Indonesia’s largest student protest movement since 1997 and 1998. There are more students and university leaders expressing their concerns and grievances during the current protests compared to the other protests.” “The government has to be very careful in how it chooses to deal with the new movement, especially if it grows faster after February 14 if students become unhappy with the results.” This election is also viewed as a referendum, to some extent, on dynastic politics. The Guardian noted that some view Prabowo’s pick of the president’s son as a signal that the current president may be trying to hold on to his influence despite demitting office. [caption id=“attachment_13360152” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Indonesian President Joko Widodo is congratulated by the Gerindra Party Chairman Prabowo Subianto. Reuters[/caption] Mario Yosryandi, 23, a human rights activist and freelance writer based in Jakart told the newspaper Gibran being chosen was “morally wrong”. “A lot of my friends would love to be in Gibran’s position, and contribute to the country by joining political office, but they don’t have the same privilege of just suddenly being tapped as the vice presidential candidate,” Mario added. New issues are also coming into focus such as representation for marginalised groups such as domestic workers and people with disabilities. Muharyati, a candidate in East Jakarta, is a 54-year-old single parent of two whose left hand is partially missing, “I want to be there to voice the needs and issues of women that must be accommodated by law,” Muharyati who chairs the Indonesian Association of Disabled Women, said. She added that she had to endure ridicule because of doubts about her competence to sit in Jakarta’s House of Representatives. She is running with the newly formed Labor Party, which is putting forward candidates from marginalised groups in its races across the country. Muharyati said many policies, laws and regulations tend not to side with women, especially women with disabilities. “I will fight for equal rights for women and people with disabilities if I am elected to office,” Muharyati said. Another Labor Party candidate, Yuni Sri Rahayu, 41, is seeking to represent Indonesia’s millions of domestic workers, who are not protected under Indonesian labor laws and regulations. She has worked as a domestic helper since the age of 16, and is a board member of the National Advocacy Network for Domestic Workers. Some nine million Indonesians were in domestic work in the country and abroad as of 2020, according to an estimate by Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women released in 2020. Rahayu says her professional background has been an obstacle for her in convincing the residents to support her in February legislative election.
“I want to fight and encourage lawmakers to immediately pass the domestic worker protection bill into law,” she said.
Impact Shorts
View AllLawmakers first proposed a bill to protect domestic workers in 2004, addressing issues of discrimination, abuse and humiliation, but it’s never passed, despite at least three more attempts. Domestic workers often work long hours without adequate rest or time off, and have little protection from violence from employers. They also do not receive no social security. “Many people think it is an odd that a housemaid is contesting for legislator,” Rahayu said. “But we seriously need representatives in the parliament to voice the rights of fellow domestic workers.” What do experts say? Some say Indonesia is at a crucial moment. Even Sembiring, the director of the Indonesian Forum for Environment in Riau (WALHI Riau) told Al Jazeera this is an “opportunity for healing” and “an important moment of potential to restore Indonesia for the next five years”. But Judith Jacob, director of geopolitical risk and security intelligence at risk management company Forward Global, said the election will likely see things continue on the same path. “Given the relatively thin policy platforms of the three candidates and the fact that they’ve all largely pledged continuity, and been governors or cabinet members, it’s not a particularly significant departure from Jokowi’s platform,” Jacob added. With inputs from agencies
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