JAKARTA: The reform-minded governor of teeming Jakarta, Joko Widodo, has comfortably won Indonesia’s closely-fought presidential race against a controversial ex-general with deep roots in the era of strongman Suharto, final results showed Tuesday.
Widodo, known by his nickname Jokowi, won around 53 per cent of the vote compared to about 47 per cent for Prabowo Subianto, according to a final tally cited by local media in the world’s third biggest democracy.
The official announcement of the result of the July 9 election was expected shortly.
Widodo’s victory caps a meteoric rise for the former furniture exporter who was born in a riverbank slum.
It will be welcomed by investors who hope he can breathe new life into Southeast Asia’s biggest economy after a recent slowdown.
Voters faced a stark choice between governor Widodo, from a new breed of politicians without links to the autocratic Suharto era, and Prabowo, a figure from the old guard with a chequered human rights record.
The news came just hours after Prabowo — who had also claimed victory in the election — alleged fraud and said he was withdrawing from the race.
Prabowo, 62, had been widely expected to challenge the result in the Constitutional Court if he lost, but a spokesman for
his team said this was no longer an option since they had withdrawn from the whole process.
The decision removes the prospect of prolonged political deadlock because the court would not have ruled until the end of August.
Speaking to reporters earlier in Jakarta, Prabowo claimed there had been “a massive, structured and systematic fraud” in the 2014 elections. — AFP