Candidates hit campaign trail as election fever grips Indonesia

Thousands of people jammed a road outside election committee headquarters as two of three Indonesian presidential hopefuls register.

Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar arriv at election committee headquarters in Jakarta on Thursday. Picture: AFP

After months of build-up, election fever hit Indonesia on Thursday when thousands of people jammed a public road outside the country’s election committee headquarters as two of three presidential candidate teams officially registered their campaigns.

Police closed down parts of central Jakarta to accommodate throngs of supporters early on Thursday as nominations opened for the February 14 elections, the world’s biggest single-day polls in which some 205 million Indonesians may vote for presidential and legislative candidates.

Former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and his vice- presidential running mate, Muhaimin Iskandar, were first to reach the election committee headquarters after inching their way through crowds.

Polls consistently place Mr Anies a distant third in the race as he struggles to shake off the stain of the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections in which he was accused of capitalising on an Islamist campaign against his rival candidate.

On Thursday, however, the former academic described the public reception as “a very promising start”, and urged all candidates and supporters to “maintain an atmosphere of unity and togetherness”.

“We bring ideas for changes that will be felt by Indonesian families,” Mr Anies said, laying out the bones of a political platform that emphasises hip-pocket issues. “We want basic needs to be affordable and, on the other hand, we want farmers to live prosperously, livestock breeders to have a more prosperous life, and fishermen to have a more prosperous life. We want equality of opportunity for work, the chance to secure a better future through education, and access to good health protection.”

Most surveys have central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo just ahead of Defence Minister and third-time presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto, though not far enough in front to avoid a second-round vote, which could see Mr Anies’ hardline Islamist supporters flock to Mr Prabowo.

Mr Ganjar’s lead may have widened, however, since his political backer – the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) – announced on Wednesday it had chosen popular and well-respected Security Minister and Islamic cleric Mahfud MD as his running mate.

The two men drew their own crowd later in the morning when they came out to register in a political caravan that included the 1975 Cadillac that belonged to independent Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, and a bus carrying his daughter and PDIP matriarch Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Mr Prabowo was widely expected this week to name President Joko Widodo’s son and Solo Mayor, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as his vice-presidential pick, capitalising on the outgoing leader’s enormous popularity, following Monday’s Constitutional Court ruling removing a legal barrier to the 36-year-old running.

But Mr Mahfud’s selection may force him to reconsider, given both rival camps have chosen Islamic scholars from East Java who belong to Indonesia’s largest and most influential Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama, as vice-presidential candidates.