Jakarta governor Joko Widodo defeated ex-army General Prabowo Subianto to win Indonesia's presidential election with 53 percent of the vote, final results from the Election Commission showed Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. Hours before the results, however, Subianto announced he had withdrawn his candidacy, saying there was massive fraud and that the election process was "problematic and not democratic."
Widodo, a former furniture maker known widely as "Jokowi," won the hearts of Indonesians with his common man image and was revealed to have a slim lead of about 4 percentage points in unofficial "quick counts" by polling agencies released after the July 9 election.
However, Subianto repeatedly claimed that polling firms with links to his campaign showed him to be ahead. "We are president and vice president candidates, Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa. As the bearer of the mandate of the people, according to the regulations we will use our constitutional rights, we are rejecting the implementation of the 2014 presidential election," he said. "We reject the 2014 presidential election which is unlawful and therefore we withdraw from the ongoing process."
Widodo, 53, was also accused of widespread vote-buying and other forms of fraud by Subianto, who has declared assets of $140 million and was on his third bid for the presidency.
Although there were no immediate reports of violence, police and military had been deployed by the country in case of political unrest, Voice of America reported. A peaceful protest about 300 meters (300 yards) from the Election Commission building in downtown Jakarta was held by about 100 Subianto supporters, chanting "Prabowo is the real president" and holding banners claiming that the commission should stop cheating.
It was the first election that pitted two candidates directly against each other since the Muslim majority country of 240 million emerged from the long and brutal Suharto dictatorship 16 years ago. "Widodo is seen by many as a reformer and a rare candidate without links to Indonesia's longtime dictator, Suharto, who was ousted in 1998 and died 10 years later," according to VOA. "Subianto, a former son-in-law of Suharto, campaigned on a strong nationalist platform. Many are concerned he will steer the country in an authoritarian direction, since he is accused of rights abuses, including overseeing the arrest of democracy activists, during his time as an army general."
Final results showed that Widodo won 70,997,859 votes, or 53.15 percent of the nearly 133 million valid ballots cast, while Subianto won 62,576,444 votes, or 46.85 percent, with voter turnout being 70.7 percent.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country and Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
