Indonesia election 2024: Prabowo Subianto hails ‘victory for all Indonesians’ as early counts show him in lead with 58%

Prabowo’s camp says it is ‘confident’ the defence minister has earned a one-round victory over his rivals, Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan

This is Prabowo’s third bid for the top job, and he’ll take over the presidency from rival-turned-ally Joko Widodo, to whom he lost the last two polls

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Indonesia’s Defence Minister and leading presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto with his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:01pm, 14 Feb 2024Updated: 3:22pm, 15 Feb 2024

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Prabowo Subianto’s camp on Wednesday declared victory in Indonesia’s three-way presidential election, after quick-count results showed he had secured the simple majority required to win the race in a single round.

Defence Minister Prabowo, 72, received around 58 per cent of the vote, according to quick counts by several pollsters, beating former Jakarta governor and opposition candidate Anies Baswedan, as well as former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo, who was running on the ruling party’s ticket.

“We are confident this is a single-round victory for Prabowo and Gibran,” said Prabowo’s party’s secretary general, Ahmad Muzani, referring to his running mate.

Official results might take weeks to confirm, but the “quick count” method, in which independent pollsters and volunteers tally ballots from a sample of voting stations, has proved to be a reliable indicator of the final results in previous elections.

This is Prabowo’s third bid for the country’s top job, and he will take over the presidency from his rival-turned-ally, incumbent Joko Widodo, to whom he lost the last two elections.