Early results show defeat for Jakarta’s Christian governor
● Polling for divisive contest shows effect of Muslim backlash
Unofficial results showed the minority Christian governor of the Indonesian capital was resoundingly defeated yesterday by his Muslim challenger who swept up votes by appealing to a growing conservatism in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
So called “quick counts” by ten research companies show former cabinet minister Anies Baswedan winning between 55 and 60 per cent of votes with more than 80 per cent of ballots counted.
Incumbent governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is on trial for blasphemy and hundreds of thousands protested against him in Jakarta, deriding his Chinese ancestry and calling for him to be imprisoned or killed.
Mr Baswedan, highly educated and with a moderate Muslim background, capitalised on the backlash against Mr Purnamaby courting the support of conservative clerics and figures on the radical fringe who opposed electing a non-muslim.
The polarising campaign gave hard-line Islamic groups a national stage and has undermined Indonesia’s reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam.
Mr Purnama’s defeat is a setback for his political patron, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who today hosts US vicepresident Mike Pence on the Indonesian leg of an Asian tour. Mr Purnama’s rival Mr Baswedan was supported by the political and business elite that Mr Widodo unexpectedly bested in the 2014 presidential election and who will be seeking to unseat him in 2019.
The governor congratulated Mr Baswedan on his apparent victory and urged Indonesians to forget the acrimony of the campaign. Mr Baswedan told reporters that he is committed to maintaining the diversity of Jakarta and will emphasise social justice. Mr Purnama, who was Jakarta’s first ethnic Chinese governor and first Christian in half a century, has been popular with middle-class Jakartans for his efforts to stamp out corruption and make the overflowing polluted capital more livable.
But his brash manner and evictions of slum communities alienated many in the city of ten million.
Opponents seized their moment last year when a video surfaced of Mr Purnama’s telling voters they were being deceived if they believed a specific verse in the Koran prohibited Muslims from electing a non-muslim as leader. Hardline groups drew huge crowds to protests in Jakarta, accusing the governor of insulting a Koranic verse. They cited from the Koran to argue that Muslims should not vote for a nonmuslim leader.
Prosecutors will today make their sentencing demand in Mr Purnama’s trial. Blasphemy is a criminal offense in Indonesia and punishable by up to five years in prison.
Opinion polls released ear- lier in the week seriously miscalled the outcome of yesterday’s vote, showing Mr Baswedan and Mr Purnama neck-and-neck.
In the west Jakarta neighbourhood of Kebon Jeruk, Annisa Karolina, 29, a restaurant cashier, said voting for a non-muslim would be a sin, but she also believes Jakarta will be better run without Mr Purnama.
The Jakarta election came on the eve of Mr Pence’s visit, as the Trump administration seeks to engage the world’s fourth-largest nation and largest Muslim-majority country as an emerging regional power.
Mr Pence is scheduled today to visit the biggest mosque in south-east Asia, Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque.
The Jakarta election will be seen as a barometer for the 2019 presidential election, given the city’s outsized importance as both the nation’s capital and commercial centre.
Indonesian social media users likened the outcome to the shock results of the US presidential vote and the Brexit vote of last year.