Prabowo Confirmed As Next President

As had widely been expected, Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto has been confirmed as the winner of the February presidential election, and will succeed the outgoing incumbent Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo in October. With official counting now complete, the General Election Commission has confirmed that Prabowo won in the first round with 58.6% of the nationwide vote having also won a majority in 36 of Indonesia's 38 provinces. Former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan came second with 24.9% of the vote, while former Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo (who hailed from Jokowi's party) came in a distant third with 16.5%.

• Both Anies and Pranowo's camps have launched legal challenges alleging fraud and irregularities in the voting process, with the cases set to go to the Constitutional Court.
• Anwar Usman, former chief justice of the court and Jokowi's brother-in-law, was removed by an ethics panel for not recusing himself in a case brought before the court regarding the vice-presidential candidacy of Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Prabowo's running mate and Jokowi's son.
• Gibran is 37 years old, below the 40 years of age usually required to run. However, the court made an exception for those who had served as regional leaders (as Gibran had). Anwar will remain on the court, but will not rule on any election dispute cases.
• Despite running on a continuity ticket, Prabowo has been relatively quiet regarding his plans for governance, leaving observers somewhat in the dark as to what direction Indonesia will take politically and economically over the next five years.