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.

Explore more

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

From the February 17th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

The Adani scandal takes the shine off Modi’s electoral success

The tycoon’s indictment clouds the prime minister’s prospects

Priyanka Gandhi addresses a rally standing in front of an image of herself.

Priyanka Gandhi: dynastic scion, and hope of India’s opposition

Poised to enter parliament, she may have bigger ambitions than that 


Kazakhstan, the Ustyurt plateau. Caspian sea;

The Caspian Sea is shrinking rapidly

This has big implications for Russia, which has come to rely on Central Asian ports


Racial tensions boil over in New Zealand

A controversial bill regarding Maori people punctures its relative harmony

Once a free-market pioneer, Sri Lanka takes a leap to the left

A new president with Marxist roots now dominates parliament too