Asia | General, elected

Prabowo Subianto will be Indonesia’s next president

The controversial former general is unlikely to boost the country’s democratic credentials

Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, along with his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka dance after delivering their speeches
Photograph: Reuters
|JAKARTA

HOW HE HAS waited. In 1998, after the fall of Suharto, the dictator who ruled Indonesia for 32 years, Prabowo Subianto, his then son-in-law, manoeuvred to take over—unsuccessfully. In 2014 and again in 2019, Mr Prabowo ran to become president of what had by then become the world’s third-largest democracy. Both times he lost to Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi (and both times he falsely claimed the election had been stolen). But as voting closed on February 14th there remained no doubt that Mr Prabowo had at last clinched his prize: with reliable pollsters showing he had won nearly 60% of the vote in the first round, he will be Indonesia’s next leader.

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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “General, elected”

From the February 17th 2024 edition

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