Indonesia to vote in general, presidential elections

JAKARTA

More than 192 million Indonesians will head to the polls on Wednesday to cast their votes.

They will elect their president and vice president as well as members of the House of Representatives, Regional Representative Council and provincial and municipal councils.

The presidential race is set to be a rematch between incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, 57, from the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) and Prabowo Subianto, 67, from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

Known for his business in the furnishings sector, Widodo is from the Solo region on the Island of Cava.

Widodo's vice-presidential candidate and one of the country's leading religious leaders, 76-year-old Ma’ruf Amin was the chairman of the country’s top clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Assembly (MUI).

Subianto, on the other hand, is a member of an elite family in the natural resources business. He used to be a general in the Indonesian Special Forces before he entered politics in 2004 in the Golkar Party. He later founded Gerindra.

Both candidates first ran against each other in the 2014 presidential election, when Subianto lost by six percentage points to Widodo.

A total of 16 political parties will be competing on the legislative ballot, where a coalition of eight parties are endorsing Widodo, aside from his own PDI-P, against five others supporting Subianto.

In addition, four independent regional parties will compete from the autonomous northwestern Aceh Province.

Election issues

Amid problems in education, health and infrastructure, the main issues that voters want resolved include income inequality and poverty, particularly in rural areas.

Fair and transparent governance are also among the priorities of the electorate against high levels of corruption, environmental pollution, occasional religious and ethnic conflicts as well as issues on human rights and security issues

The legislative race

As many as 8,000 candidates are competing for 575 seats in the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, at the provincial and district levels, there are respectively 2,207 and 17,610 seats being contested across all 34 provinces.

Voters will also pick among 807 candidates to elect to 136 seats in the Regional Representative Council.

The biggest party in the current parliament is the ruling PDI-P with 109 out of 560 seats, followed by the Functional Groups Party with 91 seats and Gerindra with 73.

Voters will cast their ballots at 809,699 polling stations across the country. For overseas voting, there will be 789 polling stations, 2,326 mobile ballot boxes and 426 post office boxes.

The main match: Presidential Election

Aside from the legislative race, the presidential and vice-presidential elections are set to be the real competition.

A few days before the ballot, surveys placed Widodo ahead of his rival, Subianto, while the opposition candidate led in surveys conducted by his own coalition.

*Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur