Insights
The world’s largest one day direct election, Indonesia's presidential election completed last week. The count continues but President Joko Widodo looks set to win with a 55% majority. Most commentators seem to think that continued stability is good for the economy and country generally. And in terms of continuation of the bureaucrats in position, that should mean no major changes for IP.
One curious incident occurred in an otherwise calm and peaceful election. In Selangor, a city in the neighbouring country of Malaysia thousands of ballot papers were found pre marked in favour of Indonesian candidates. The Indonesian General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) are investigating with the Royal Malaysian Police. It is not clear what these papers were. Were they genuine ballot papers intended for Indonesia's diaspora living in Malaysia but never distributed? Or fake ballot papers printed abroad intended to be added to the count?
