Joko Widodo Declares Victory in Indonesia’s Presidential Election
Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared victory on Thursday in the race to lead the world’s third-largest democracy, saying unofficial results showed his ticket had got 54 percent of the popular vote in Wednesday’s election, according to reports.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared victory on Thursday in the race to lead the world’s third-largest democracy, saying unofficial results showed his ticket had got 54 percent of the popular vote in Wednesday’s election, according to reports.
Widodo ran with Islamic cleric Ma’ruf Amin against former military general Prabowo Subianto, who secured 45 percent of votes, according to unofficial “quick counts” of sample votes by private pollsters, Reuters reported.
“We must wait for the official result. But 12 pollsters have given clear results… we convey that the Jokowi-Maruf ticket got 54.5 percent of the vote while Prabowo got 45.5 percent,” Widodo told a news conference in south Jakarta.
Indonesia’s presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto, meanwhile, said that cheating had occurred across the country during this week’s election, which unofficial results showed incumbent President Joko Widodo had won, the source added.
“We have declared (victory) because we got evidence of widespread cheating at the village, sub-district and district levels across Indonesia,” Prabowo told reporters, minutes after Widodo declared victory at a separate news conference.
