BY SITI NURAIN RATANI
JAKARTA: “Voting Day” has finally arrived for nearly 205 million Indonesians as they choose their leaders for the world’s third-largest democracy.
The period of campaigning is expected to come to an end as soon as the General Election (PEMILU) and Presidential Election (Pilpres) 2024 are concluded on Wednesday (Feb14).
Covering the voting process at Lebak Bulus Polling Centre 60 (the voting place for presidential candidate Anies Baswedan) in the morning, media practitioners and voters were already flooding the area to cast their votes.
Presidential candidate Anies Rasyid Baswedan, the former governor, arrived at the polling centre at 8.21am (Indonesia time) with his mother to cast their votes. Anies is listed as voter number 24 in the Permanent Voters List (DPT).
After casting their votes, Anies is expected to head to the Menteng area to monitor the temporary vote count, also known as the quick count.
In the world’s largest single-day election, Indonesians will vote for a new president and vice-president, parliament members, and legislators.
There are around 20,000 administrative positions nationwide. Each voter will be given five ballot papers to choose the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, legislators at the national, regional, and local levels, as well as regional senators.
The Indonesian election process is considered the largest single-day election globally, involving nearly 205 million voters, 800,000 polling centres, and over six million election workers.
In addition to the Anies Rasyid Baswedan-Dr Muhaimin Iskandar pair, there are two other candidate pairs: Prabowo-Gibran and the pair of Ganjar Pranowo-Dr Mahfud.
