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Regional polls help Prabowo tighten grip on power
The likely victory of candidates backed by the ruling coalition in most strategic regions in this week's local elections is expected to solidify the power base that President Prabowo Subianto needs to implement his agenda over the next five years.
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A local poll administrator shows an invalid ballot during vote counting for the 2024 Central Java gubernatorial election at a polling station in Semarang, Central Java, on Nov. 27, 2024. Several pollsters predict that the Ahmad Luthfi-Taj Yasin Maimoen candidate pair have won the province’s gubernatorial race. (Antara/Makna Zaezar)
T
he likely victory of candidates backed by the ruling coalition in most strategic regions in this week's regional elections is expected to solidify the power base that President Prabowo Subianto needs to implement his agenda over the next five years.
People across 37 provinces, 93 cities and 415 regencies voted for new governors, mayors and regents on Wednesday in the biggest simultaneous regional elections in the nation’s history.
While the official vote tabulation is still underway, quick counts of votes from sampled polling stations released by credible pollsters suggested that candidates backed by Prabowo’s big-tent Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) enjoy a decisive lead in the nation’s most populous provinces of West Java, Central Java and East Java. Some of these candidates were also endorsed by former President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
A Prabowo and Jokowi-backed candidate is also on course to win in North Sumatra, the largest province outside Java.
The capital Jakarta is the only province in Java where the KIM candidate for governor, Ridwan Kamil, is trailing behind former cabinet secretary Pramono Anung, the candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the only de-facto opposition party.
Many experts have described Wednesday’s elections as an extension of the power play between KIM and the PDI-P from February's presidential race, which Prabowo won by a landslide.
Controlling battleground provinces will help Prabowo to ensure that regional administrations work hand in hand with the central government in implementing his campaign promises, said political analyst Aditya Perdana.
