According to the General Elections Commission (KPU), 95.4 million women are eligible to vote in the April 17 election, slightly outnumbering the country’s 95.3 million male voters.

Meanwhile, the Alvara Research Institute found that Muslim voters account for 87.6 percent of the 190 million people who have the right to vote in both the presidential and legislative elections, which will be held simultaneously for the 

first time.

As the Special Report in today’s paper reveals, presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Uno have been touting the power of emak-emak (married women) with their campaign. The pair believes that women votes could be a game-changer for this year’s election and key to their victory.

Incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin do not want to lose the opportunity to secure the support of women either. Their campaign team has chosen the tagline Ibu Bangsa (Mother of the Nation) in a show of respect for women as an influential bloc.

In an attempt to win support from Muslim voters, Jokowi picked Ma’ruf Amin — a notable figure in Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim organization, and the Indonesian Ulema Council — as his vice-presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, Prabowo and Sandiaga have been enjoying massive support from Muslim groups, as evident in a series of rallies held since November 2016. The movement was proven effective in dethroning Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, in the bitterly contested 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election. Its latest rally was held on Thursday.

The continued attempts of Prabowo and Sandiaga’s camp to brand the incumbent as doing more harm than good to Islam and the former’s relentless visits to Islamic boarding schools and ulema only demonstrate the fierce battle raging between the two sides to win the hearts of Muslims.

It is natural for the candidates to focus on majority groups in their bid to win the presidency; both tickets, too, are devoting a lot of effort to collecting votes in Java, where 60 percent of Indonesia’s population lives.

However, Indonesia is not only about those majority groups as there are many minority groups that are also part and parcel of the diverse nation and have equal rights as citizens according to the Constitution.

Protecting minorities matters in democracy, which is in opposition of the dictatorship of the majority or tyranny of the minority. Electing a leader whose commitment to the rights of minorities will define the journey of the nation not only in the next five years but also the decades to come.

Likewise, offering too many concessions to the majority at the expense of the minority will turn the presidential election into a routine that could perhaps derail everyone’s understanding of what the democratic contest is all about.

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