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Battlegrounds tumble in favor of Prabowo, tally shows
The General Elections Commission (KPU) has confirmed presidential frontrunner Prabowo Subianto’s upset win in key battleground provinces in Java, as organizers raced to conclude the 2024 election vote tally by the March 20 deadline.
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General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Hasyim Asy'ari (second left) and commissioners Yulianto Sudrajat (left), Parsadaan Harahap (second right) and Betty Epsilon Idroos (right) preside over a 2024 elections tabulation meeting for votes from South Kalimantan at the commission building in Jakarta on March 12, 2024. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
T
he General Elections Commission (KPU) has confirmed presidential frontrunner Prabowo Subianto’s upset win in key battleground provinces, as organizers raced to conclude the 2024 election vote tally by the March 20 deadline.
Data from the vote tabulation at the provincial level by the KPU showed Prabowo, who ran with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, won a comfortable lead in the provinces of Java, home to more than 60 percent of the country’s population.
Prabowo-Gibran exhibited a strong showing in Central Java, widely seen for years as the stronghold of both Jokowi and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which had nominated former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo for the presidential race last month.
As a member of the PDI-P, Jokowi was present when the party announced the presidential bid of Ganjar, who had governed Central Java for the past decade until his tenure ended in September last year. But the President later appeared to shift his support toward Prabowo, who pledged to continue Jokowi’s legacy.
Prabowo-Gibran swept Central Java with over 12 million votes, according to data from the KPU, while Ganjar, who ran alongside Mahfud MD, a former senior minister in Jokowi’s cabinet, appeared to have lost his home advantage, garnering only about 7.8 million votes.
Anies Baswedan, alongside his running mate National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, came in a distant third with 2.8 million votes.
Not only in Central Java, the Prabowo-Gibran pair also holds a substantial lead of more than 12 million votes over his two rivals in neighboring East Java, another key battleground where the Defense Minister suffered a back-to-back defeat in previous elections against his then-rival Jokowi.
