Indonesia kicked off one of the world’s biggest one-day elections on Wednesday, pitting president Joko Widodo against ex-general Prabowo Subianto in a race to lead the nation.More than 190 million Indonesians are set to cast a ballot as polls opened shortly after 7:00 am local time in restive Papua. The vote is slated to end at 1:00 pm in Sumatra at the other end of the volcano-dotted archipelago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A record 245,000 candidates \nare running for public office, from the presidency and parliamentary \nseats to local positions — the first time all are being held on the \nsame day.Opinion polls show Widodo, 57, is a clear favourite but he \nfaces a tough challenge from Subianto, 67, who has leaned on a fiery \nnationalist ticket and warned he will challenge the results over \nvoter-list irregularities if he loses. Subianto narrowly lost to Widodo \nin 2014 elections, and unsuccessfully challenged those results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Voters\n will flock to more than 8,00,000 polling stations where they’ll punch \nholes in ballots to make clear their candidate choice and then dip a \nfinger in ‘halal ink’, a measure to prevent double-voting in a \ngraft-riddled country where ballot-buying is rife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The polls \npresent a huge logistical challenge in a country stretching 4,800 \nkilometres across more than 17,000 islands with a population of more \nthan 260 million, including hundreds of ethnic groups and languages. \nOfficials were moving cardboard ballot boxes by motorbikes, boats and \nplanes as well as elephants and horses to reach mountaintop villages and\n communities deep in the jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A series of so-called “quick \ncounts” are expected to give a reliable indication of the presidential \nwinner later Wednesday. Official results are not expected until May.The \npoll has been punctuated by bitter mudslinging and a slew of fake news \nonline that threatens to sway millions of undecided voters. Widodo has \ncampaigned on his ambitious drive to build much-needed roads, airports \nand other infrastructure across Southeast Asia’s largest economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raised\n in a bamboo shack in a riverside slum, the soft-spoken Widodo stands in\n stark contrast to Subianto, whose strongman image is underscored by a \npenchant for slamming lecterns as he accuses Jakarta of selling the \ncountry off to foreign interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subianto joined by running mate\n Sandiaga Uno, a 49-year-old wealthy financier — has courted Islamic \nhardliners, promised a boost to military and defence spending and, \ntaking a page from US President Donald Trump, vowed to put “Indonesia \nfirst” by reviewing billions of dollars in Chinese investment.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indonesia kicked off one of the world’s biggest one-day elections on Wednesday, pitting president Joko Widodo against ex-general Prabowo Subianto in a race to lead the nation.More than 190 million Indonesians are set to cast a ballot as polls opened shortly after 7:00 am local time in restive Papua. The vote is slated to end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59325,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59323\/revisions\/59325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}