The projected outcome of Wednesday’s regional polls has cemented the dominance of President Prabowo Subianto’s big-tent electoral alliance, the Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), which was also behind the administration of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, after candidates backed by rival camps suffered upset defeats in a number of key battlegrounds.

The country’s largest simultaneous regional head elections have been seen as the extension of the power play between KIM, led by Prabowo’s Gerindra Party, and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the political vehicle of Jokowi before he tacitly endorsed Prabowo in February’s presidential election over PDI-P candidate Ganjar Pranowo.

Quick count results by various pollsters have suggested that candidates backed by the PDI-P, and some KIM members that had decided to form their own coalitions for the Nov. 27 local elections, were defeated by the ruling coalition.

A major loss for PDI-P

The PDI-P, now the only de facto opposition party, suffered a huge defeat in its battle for dominance against Jokowi in Central Java, the party’s longtime traditional stronghold.

Quick counts show the KIM-backed candidate Ahmad Luthfi is on his way to victory by securing nearly 60 percent of the vote, pulling comfortably ahead of his rival Andika Perkasa who ran on the ticket of the PDI-P.

Read also: Regional polls help Prabowo tighten grip on power

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