JAKARTA: Indonesia’s president-elect Prabowo Subianto has secured a parliamentary majority after the party that backed his rival in the February elections announced it was joining his big-tent coalition.
The NasDem party, which accounts for about 10 percent of parliament, announced late on Thursday that it would support the incoming administration of Prabowo.
The move will give the Prabowo government control over parliament, boosting its stake from 43 percent to 52 percent.
The parliamentary majority is expected to smooth legislative processes, including approval of the 2025 budget, which outgoing President Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, will announce on Friday.
Ex-commander Prabowo, and vice president-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who is Jokowi’s eldest son, will be sworn into office on October 20.
Nasdem chief Surya Paloh told reporters on Thursday that his decision to join Prabowo would foster a “calmer and more optimistic” atmosphere and ease the work of the incoming administration.
“We agree to cooperate and collaborate to face challenges in the future,” said Prabowo, after meeting Paloh, “Unity is the key to a nation’s success.” Prabowo, whose coalition includes five political parties, is also in talks with the country’s largest Islamic party, which has a 10 percent parliamentary share. NasDem previously backed Anies Baswedan, a former Jakarta governor and vocal government critic, who was defeated by Prabowo in this year’s presidential election.
The party’s decision to join Prabowo has led it to withdraw support for Anies’s bid for Jakarta governor this November. Jokowi’s youngest son Kaesang has in recent weeks been touted as a possible candidate for the post of governor in Jakarta or Central Java.
Anies, who polls show is the frontrunner in the Jakarta race, has been struggling to find enough parties to support him.
Anies told Reuters this week that “despite the pressure” he was optimistic he would ultimately secure the backing of parties with the required threshold of 20 percent of seats in the regional parliament.
The developments follow the shock resignation at the weekend of Airlangga Hartarto as head of Golkar, Indonesia’s second-largest political party, which is also in Prabowo’s camp.
It was expected that Airlangga, a Jokowi and Prabowo ally, would retain chairmanship of the party until its planned December congress. Instead, that congress will be held next week, when a new party chair will be elected.
After a decade in office analysts say Jokowi is seeking control over Golkar to retain influence after he steps down.
Indonesia’s president-elect Prabowo secures parliamentary majority
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Indonesia’s president-elect Prabowo secures parliamentary majority
- The NasDem party, which accounts for about 10% of parliament, announced it would support the incoming administration of Prabowo Subianto
- The parliamentary majority is expected to smooth legislative processes, including approval of the 2025 budget
Junta leader Gen. Mamdi Doumbouya is declared winner of Guinea’s election, provisional results show
- Mamady Doumbouya took power in 2021 coup
CONAKRY, Guinea: Guinea coup leader Mamady Doumbouya has been elected president, according to provisional results announced on Tuesday, completing the return to civilian rule in the bauxite- and iron ore-rich West African nation.
The former special forces commander, thought to be in his early 40s, seized power in 2021, toppling then-President Alpha Conde, who had been in office since 2010. It was one in a series of nine coups that have reshaped politics in West and Central Africa since 2020.
The provisional results announced on Tuesday showed Doumbouya winning 86.72 percent of the December 28 vote, an absolute majority that allows him to avoid a runoff.
The Supreme Court has eight days to validate the results in the event of any challenge.
Doumbouya’s victory, which gives him a seven-year mandate, was widely expected. Conde and Cellou Dalein Diallo, Guinea’s longtime opposition leader, are in exile, which left Doumbouya to face a fragmented field of eight challengers.
Doumbouya reversed pledge not to run
The original post-coup charter in Guinea barred junta members from running in elections, but a constitution dropping those restrictions was passed in a September referendum.
Djenabou Toure, the country’s top election official who announced the results on Tuesday night, said turnout was 80,95 percent. However voter participation appeared tepid in the capital Conakry, and opposition politicians rejected a similarly high turnout figure for the September referendum.
Guinea holds the world’s largest bauxite reserves and the richest untapped iron ore deposit at Simandou, officially launched last month after years of delay.
Doumbouya has claimed credit for pushing the project forward and ensuring Guinea benefits from its output.
His government this year also revoked the license of Emirates Global Aluminium’s subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation following a refinery dispute, transferring the unit’s assets to a state-owned firm.
The turn toward resource nationalism — echoed in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — has boosted his popularity, as has his relative youth in a country where the median age is about 19.
Political space restricted, UN says
Political debate has been muted under Doumbouya. Civil society groups accuse his government of banning protests, curbing press freedom and restricting opposition activity.
The campaign period was “severely restricted, marked by intimidation of opposition actors, apparently politically motivated enforced disappearances, and constraints on media freedom,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said last week.
On Monday, opposition candidate Faya Lansana Millimono told a press conference the election was marred by “systematic fraudulent practices” and that observers were prevented from monitoring the voting and counting processes.
The government did not respond to a request for comment.
