Prabowo Subianto declared official winner
Indonesia’s president-elect to offer policy continuity as Xi offers congratulations
Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 20 congratulated Prabowo Subianto on his election as Indonesian president after the country’s election body declared him as the winner of the Feb 14 presidential election.
The National Election Commission (KPU) concluded the national vote tally on March 20.
Prabowo’s running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, former mayor of Solo in Central Java and the eldest son of incumbent president Joko Widodo, was also declared as winner of the vice-presidential race. Indonesians elect their president and vice president as a team.
The winning pair secured over 96 million votes, or 58.58 percent of the total votes cast. A total of 164.27 million Indonesians cast their votes.
KPU’s official announcement validated results of the quick count held in February that showed a huge lead for the Prabowo and Raka pairing over their two rivals. The winners will take their oath of office in October.
The duo’s triumph in the presidential election is expected to result in a continuity in Widodo’s policies, analysts said.
“It is still a bit early but given his previous statements that he would be a continuity candidate, we do expect (Prabowo) to retain (Widodo’s) policy regarding relations with China,” said Nicholas Mapa, senior economist at ING, a Dutch investment bank, told China Daily.
China is Indonesia’s biggest trading partner and Widodo, as Indonesia’s leader for the past 10 years, has sought to deepen trade cooperation between the two countries.
One of Widodo’s legacies is the China-funded high-speed railway that connects the capital city of Jakarta with West Java province. The bullet train, a first in Southeast Asia, is one of the most prominent projects under the Belt and Road Initiative.
M. Habib Abiyan Dzakwan, a researcher at the department of international relations of the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Indonesia’s foreign policy is unlikely to change under the Prabowo-Raka government.
“Under their administration, Indonesia will remain a friend with everybody else — China, the US, Europe, Australia, and so on,” Dzakwan said, alluding to Indonesia’s bebas dan aktif (independent and active) foreign policy.
Prabowo had said in previous press briefings that Indonesia’s GDP may hit 8 percent in the next three to five years, which would be a sharp rise from the 5.05 percent growth in 2023, and the official 5.3 percent GDP target for this year.
Mapa of ING said that in order to realize the 8 percent growth rate, Prabowo needs to find other sources of investment.
“He has also vowed to practice fiscal discipline while chasing this growth aspiration,” Mapa added.
Tauhid Ahmad, executive director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Development of Economics and Finance, said Prabowo’s growth target may be “difficult to realize”.
Ahmad is cautious about the future development of the “hilirisasi” (mineral dowstreaming) policy that Widodo has championed and which Prabowo has vowed to continue under his leadership.
Ahmad cited the global market for minerals and mineral products, noting that Prabowo might want to rethink about hilirisasi. “Hilirisasi is not enough to support our economy,” he said, adding that the government might need to also focus more on other industries like textile, steel and furniture to achieve its growth target.
The March 20 announcement by KPU took place amid protests from the camps of Prabowo-Raka’s two rivals in the election, former provincial governors Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo. Their supporters held street demonstrations and their legal teams said they were fully prepared to lodge complaints with the Constitutional Court about alleged electoral rigging.