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Indonesia election 2024: will Anies and Ganjar join hands to deny Prabowo an outright victory?
- Weeks before the February 14 election, Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan have gone on the offensive to narrow Defence Minister Prabowo’s large lead
- While their efforts seem to have irked Prabowo, analysts say it’s unlikely the two will become bedfellows given their ideological differences
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Indonesia’s three presidential hopefuls are ramping up their campaigns weeks before the February 14 election, with front runner Prabowo Subianto aiming for a decisive victory by capturing more than half the vote in his third bid to become leader.
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After enlisting President Joko Widodo’s eldest son as his running mate in October, Defence Minister Prabowo has been comfortably in the lead in opinion surveys, with most recent polls placing him well ahead of his opponents.
But his rivals, former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and ex-governor of Jakarta Anies Baswedan, have not been idle. Both have gone on the offensive against Prabowo in recent televised debates that have hooked viewers in Indonesia.
This was particularly apparent in last Sunday’s debate, during which Anies attacked Prabowo’s purported wealth and Ganjar criticised the minister’s handling of the defence budget.
“Half of our soldiers do not have official residences, while the minister owns 340,000 hectares of land,” said Anies, who claimed he was citing the same data used by Widodo when he faced off with Prabowo in the 2019 election.
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Prabowo appeared disgruntled at the end of Sunday’s debate, saying: “I was a little disappointed by the quality [of the debate], especially the narratives that were conveyed by the other candidates.”
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