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Polls big success both at home, abroad
“In 2016, I had to take off my cross necklace or not reveal I was a Catholic in public for fear of intimidation. However, I did not have to do that [during this election] because I felt safe,” Aot told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, several hours after the nationwide vote had concluded.
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Count me in: An elderly woman is carried by her relative to a polling station in Malang, East Java, on Wednesday. (The Jakarta Post/Nedi Putra AW)
H
aving lived in Indonesia for the past four years, Thai Catholic seminarian Dulpichai “Aot” Suwawat has seen two major elections and found significant improvements in the overall security situation, especially in Wednesday’s first-ever simultaneous elections.
Comparing it to the divisive gubernatorial election in Jakarta three years ago, the 26-year-old said he felt much more at ease this time around, despite the heated feuds between supporters of incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his rival Prabowo Subianto.
“In 2016, I had to take off my cross necklace or not reveal I was a Catholic in public for fear of intimidation. However, I did not have to do that [during this election] because I felt safe,” Aot told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, several hours after the nationwide vote had concluded.
Quick counts from eight pollsters, including Litbang Kompas and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies-Cyrus Network, showed Jokowi ahead with a lead amounting to around 10 percentage points.
Aot was not worried about possible protests from Prabowo’s camp, believing that authorities could keep a lid on these.
Nevertheless, his confidence may yet be tested as Prabowo claimed to have won the election on Wednesday while accusing pollsters of being partisan in their results.
The most complex single-day election in the world has been widely seen as a litmus test for democracy in Indonesia, amid concerns about the rising influence of conservative political Islam.
