With around 270 million inhabitants spread across more than 17,000 archipelagos, Indonesia will put its democratic system into action in the early hours of February 14, when the next president of this Asian country will be elected in a titanic electoral exercise. Elections marked by geographical and climatic challenges, innovative social media campaigns and the great shadow of corruption that threatens the functioning of Indonesian institutions.
The world's third largest democracy – behind India and the United States – is put to the test once again. In addition to consecrating a new president, the elections on February 14 will have the objective of putting more than 20,000 parliamentary positions to vote at the district, provincial and national levels, the latter consisting of only 580 seats, which will be competed by more than 10,000 candidates distributed among 18 political associations.
As in any democracy, this 'mega election' will have the citizens as protagonists. The General Electoral Commission of Indonesia reports an electoral roll of some 204 million people for these elections, who will be accompanied by a police deployment of more than 25,000 security elements to ensure the correct development of the voting, as well as the protection of the urns.
This monumental popular call requires a logistical structure of the same caliber, which is why the Indonesian Government has trained more than five million volunteers who will attend around 800,000 polling stations spread throughout the 5,000 kilometers of territory that make up this massive conglomerate of islands.
“We expect a participation rate of over 80%. Indonesians take voting and democracy very seriously. Especially since it is a young democracy, which emerged after the fall of General Suharto's dictatorship in 1998,” he said. David Camroux, researcher at Ceri (Sciences-Po International Research Center) and specialist in Southeast Asia.
The climate, one of the biggest challenges
Due to its status as an archipelago, Indonesia will have the challenge of delivering the necessary electoral tools to every corner of its islands, so that no citizen is limited from their democratic participation.
Thousands of empty ballot boxes and packages of blank ballots have been distributed throughout the Indonesian territory, using various means of transportation such as helicopters, boats, small planes and trucks, although the most remote and marginalized locations in the country were covered by buffalo or on foot. .
However, it is not all good news for the most remote islands of the archipelago. The rainy season has already arrived in Indonesia, which year after year causes partial flooding in multiple regions of the country.
On the eve of the elections, the Indonesian climate agency has warned of the risk of “extreme weather” in the western part of the island of Java during February 14, which has led the Government to make the decision to postpone the elections. 10 nearby locations.
A former general of the dictatorship, the favorite for the presidency
Another of the controversies that will mark the 2024 Indonesian elections are the candidates who will fight for the presidency. Given the impossibility of the re-election of the current president, Joko Widodo, after holding office twice in a row, other political figures emerge as options for the electorate.
Indonesians will have the chance to mark three names on the ballot: Ganjar Pranowo, candidate of the ruling party and former governor of Central Java; Anies Baswedan, former governor of Jakarta and academic; and Prabowo Subianto, current Minister of Defense, former general during the Suharto dictatorship and favorite in the polls.
Two opinion studies, cited by the Reuters agency, place Subianto, 72, in first place in popularity among voters, with more than 50% voting intention, followed by Baswedan, 27 points behind, and Pranowo. with 31 points difference. If these results materialize, the current Minister of Defense would secure the presidency of Indonesia in the first round.
The intense popular support for Subianto is related to his running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, son of Widodo.
Although he has not expressed his support explicitly, the current Indonesian president has been seen at the political rallies of Subianto and Raka on repeated occasions, in addition to promoting a ruling from the Constitutional Court to allow his 36-year-old son to be exempt from the electoral regulations that impose a minimum age of 40 years for candidates.
The judge who ruled in favor of Raka is, curiously, his uncle.
A possible authoritarian turn in Indonesia
Subianto's campaign, focused on Tik Tok, has fulfilled its objective of changing the public image of the now presidential candidate, from a military veteran in his third attempt to come to power to an “endearing grandfather”, as his followers call him, that made a choreography go viral among Indonesian youth. However, many do not forget his dark past in the Suharto era.
Prabowo Subianto is accused by various NGOs of participating in multiple kidnappings and murders during the dictatorial reign of terror of Suharto, whose son-in-law he was. Specifically, he is linked to the kidnapping of 22 pro-democracy activists during the 1990s, of whom 13 are still missing.
Although Subianto was never tried for the incident, multiple officers under his command were prosecuted by Indonesian justice and sentenced to prison terms for the case.
Subianto's conflictive past, Widodo's active role in embedding his lineage in the next government and institutional negligence in acting as a counterweight to the Executive Branch are some of the factors why autocratic drift in Indonesia is a further threat. real than ever.
With AP, EFE, Reuters and local media
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