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Wednesday 23 July 2014 - 12:11

Popular Jarkarta governor wins Indonesia's presidency

Story Code : 401106
Indonesia
Indonesia's President-elect Joko Widodo (C) in a Jakarta press conference, July 22, 2014
The Election Commission, known as KPU, announced on Tuesday that the popular Jakarta governor had secured a victory by over six percentage points, receiving 53.15 percent of the nearly 130 million votes cast on July 9.
 
“This victory is a victory for all the people of Indonesia,” the president-elect said to hundreds of supporters gathered at a port on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, deliberately selected for the press event to emphasize his commitment to Indonesia’s maritime potential.
 
Widodo and his vice president-elect, Jusuf Kalla, arrived at the press event by a speed boat.
 
“With humility, we ask the people... to go back to a united Indonesia,” he said.
 
The election was the closest and the most bitterly fought in Indonesia’s history, pitting Widodo against former general Prabowo Subianto, whose pledge of strong leadership brought propmpted fears of autocratic rule.
 
Widodo’s can-do approach, impatience with bureaucracy and willingness to communicate directly with ordinary people has won him huge support in a country where close to 40 percent of the population live below or close to the poverty line.
 
The president-elect, who will begin his five-year term on October 20, faces huge challenges to boost Indonesia’s sagging growth, slash the country’s huge budget deficit that has affected the currency and meet pledges to improve the lives of its 240 million people.
 
When Widodo moves into the presidential palace in October, he will be Indonesia’s seventh president, its third to be elected by direct vote and its first to be a businessman and not from the elite class.
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