The new president of Indonesia and questions about the future of democracy in this country

Prabowo Subianto, a former general who was once barred from entering the United States for human rights violations, is expected to become Indonesia’s next president, according to preliminary results from Wednesday’s election. Prabowo rose to prominence as a military commander during the rule of his father-in-law, former Indonesian President Muhammad Suharto. During Suharto’s rule, Prabowo was known as one of the main enforcers involved in the alleged kidnapping and torture of dissident activists.
After his ouster in 1998, Prabhu turned to business and amassed a considerable fortune before returning to politics. In 2008, he founded the right-wing nationalist party Grindra, which he currently leads. He also ran for the presidency in 2014 and 2019, but lost both times to current President Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi), after which he joined Jokowi’s government as Minister of Defense.

But the new success of this 72-year-old man is accompanied by controversy. One of the challenges is his 36-year-old deputy and Jokowi’s son Gebran Rakaboming Raka, whose candidacy was only confirmed after a controversial ruling by the country’s constitutional court. This ruling ignored the minimum age limit of 40 years to run in the elections.

A few days ago, a documentary titled “Dirty Vote” was released on YouTube, which dealt with the alleged election fraud by Jokowi’s government. The video gained millions of views within a day and became a top topic on X’s social network. The allegations in the video were denied by Prabowo’s campaign, but Josuf Kala, Jokowi’s former deputy, told the media that most of it was true.

As the votes were counted on Wednesday, Prabowo’s opponents raised similar concerns about the integrity of the election. Former president and head of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Megawati Sukarnoputri urged the public to watch out for possible fraud, while presidential candidate Anis Basudan told Al Jazeera after voting closed on Wednesday that he He still can’t say whether the election was free and fair, though his team later said they found “many irregularities” such as vote-rigging.

The General Election Commission announced in a press conference on Wednesday night that re-voting has been done or will be done in 668 polling stations across the country, some due to “security disturbances” and others due to lack of ballots.
All eyes in Indonesia will now be watching to see if Prabowo, Jokowi’s former rival, makes good on his campaign promises to continue his predecessor’s populist policies or turn to authoritarian tendencies.

Experts told Time magazine that while Jokowi’s election 10 years ago was hailed as a victory for democracy in the world’s fourth most populous country, Prabowo’s rise coincides with a dangerous fall in public confidence in the country’s political system.

Ian Wilson, a senior lecturer specializing in Indonesian politics at Australia’s Murdoch University, told TIME: “The election process [in Indonesia] has always been very good and there has always been a high level of public trust.” But this time, many people from all sides are very suspicious of this process.

In a country where it is rare for presidents to actively campaign for their successor, Jokowi’s rapprochement with Prabowo has sparked surprises and, more importantly, cost him some key allies and supporters. Amid claims by rival campaigns of harassment by state security forces, there are rumors of a cabinet rift and speculation of top officials resigning.