Campaigning for Indonesia’s presidential election yesterday officially got under way, with two of the three candidates beginning two months of whistle-stop touring to woo voters in a race to lead the Southeast Asian nation.
Indonesia holds presidential and legislative elections on Feb. 14, with Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto, former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan vying to replace popular outgoing leader Joko Widodo after a decade in power.
Surveys have indicated that former special forces commander Prabowo is leading, with Ganjar second and Anies a distant third.
Photo: Reuters / Antara Foto/ M Risyal Hidayat
Ganjar, the ruling party’s candidate, began his campaign in the easternmost South Papua province, with running-mate Mahfud MD starting at the westernmost province of Aceh.
Ganjar had lunch with residents of Papua’s Merauke town and listened to complaints about broken roads, difficulties in getting fuel and a lack of medical facilities, his deputy head of campaign said.
Papua is one of Indonesia’s poorest regions.
Wearing a Papuan headdress, as well as the region’s clothes and a woven bag, Ganjar promised a health facility with at least one medical worker in every village across the country.
“We start our fight to provide prosperity for all Indonesians,” Ganjar said.
Anies began his campaign by visiting homes in a densely populated area in the capital, Jakarta, promising to lower the prices of staples and to increase job opportunities. His running-mate, Muhaimin Iskandar, began campaigning in Indonesia’s second-most-populated province, East Java.
Prabowo and his vice presidential nominee, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of Widodo, are to start their campaign later, though their team began distributing lunches, milk and vitamins for children and pregnant mothers
“We launch this program simultaneously across Indonesia,” the head of Prabowo-Gibran’s campaign team said.
The candidates are due to appear in debates organized by the election commission, but no dates have been set.
About 205 million of the more than 270 million people in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country are eligible to vote.
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