Indonesia’s Election Commission formally declared Prabowo Subianto as the next president of the world’s third-largest democracy on Wednesday, following a constitutional court ruling that dismissed challenges to his first-round majority victory.
The 72-year-old Indonesian Defense Minister is set to take office in October, succeeding outgoing leader Joko Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi.
Prabowo won nearly 60% of the ballots in the February 14 vote, defeating his rivals Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo.
Both Baswedan and Pranowo had called for a re-run of the election, alleging state interference and rule changes that favored Prabowo’s ticket.
However, the Election Commission (KPU) confirmed Prabowo and his running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as the elected presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
Prabowo secured an easy election win by pledging to continue Jokowi’s popular agenda of strong economic development.
His choice of Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the president’s eldest son and the mayor of Java’s Surakarta city, as his vice president further bolstered his campaign.
“I want to say that the match is over, a very important match, a very important contest. This is what the people were asking for,”
Prabowo said during a ceremony in Jakarta. “I will prove that I will… fight for all Indonesian people, including those who did not vote for me.”
Jokowi was accused of engineering rule changes that allowed Gibran to run as Prabowo’s vice president.
The age requirements for vice-presidential candidates were lowered in October, allowing candidates under 40 to run if they had been elected to a political position. Gibran, 36, met these criteria as the mayor of Surakarta city.
The constitutional court dismissed the complaints of Prabowo’s rivals, stating that nepotism and state intervention had not been proven.
This ruling cleared the way for Prabowo to assume the presidency and marked the end of the election dispute.
Prabowo’s victory comes despite past allegations of human rights abuses.
He has been accused by rights groups of involvement in the disappearance of democracy activists at the end of dictator Suharto’s rule in the late 1990s.
His controversial past has raised concerns among human rights advocates, who have called for accountability and transparency in his administration.
