Scene set for tense runoff in Jakarta election

A tight and possibly ugly contest is expected in a second round election for governor of the Indonesian capital that will pit the minority Christian incumbent against a former Cabinet minister backed by conservative Muslim clerics.

After months of campaigning dominated by religious and racial tensions, none of the three candidates vying to run Muslim-majority Indonesia’s biggest city secured the 50 per cent needed for an outright win, setting the stage for a run-off election in April.

Unofficial counts by research com- panies show the incumbent Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, whose campaign was hurt by blasphemy charges, won about 43 per cent of Wednesday’s vote. Anies Rasyid Baswedan, a former Education Minister who courted conservative and hardline Muslims, trailed by just three points.

Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the photogenic son of a former president, was a distant third with about 17 per cent and eliminated from the contest, but how his supporters vote in the runoff will decide the result.

An escalation of the violence, racial bigotry and huge protests that overshadowed campaigning in November and December is feared in the capital ahead of the April vote.

Religion and Ahok’s Chinese ethnicity, rather than the slew of problems that face a car-clogged and sinking Jakarta, have transformed the contest for governor into a highstakes tussle between conservatives, who want Islam to be ascendant in politics and society, and moderates.

With Yudhoyono defeated, Baswedan may soak up all antiChristian and anti-Chinese votes, which could put him over 50 per cent in April. However the tenacity of Ahok, who bounced back from the apparent political death sentence of blasphemy charges and trial, means he could still eke out a victory. Ahok rose from Deputy Governor in 2014 when Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, then Jakarta Governor, won Indonesia’s presidential election.

The blasphemy trial and the ease with which hardliners attracted several hundred thousand to protests against Ahok have undermined Indonesia’s reputation for practising a moderate form of Islam and shaken the Government of Jokowi.