Jokowi leads Indonesia’s vote count

Bloomberg

Indonesian President Joko Widodo led his challenger by about 12 percentage points midway through an official tally of votes cast in the election, weakening his rival’s claim of victory.
Widodo, known as Jokowi, secured 56.2 percent of the votes, compared to 43.8 percent for challenger Prabowo Subianto with ballots from 52 percent of the polling stations tallied, according to an online count by the General Elections Commission. The incumbent won 44.4 million votes to Subianto’s 34.6 million, data from 420,513 voting stations showed.
The commission still must verify the online data, based on a form filled out at each polling station based on counting of paper ballots by May 22.
The data backs up unofficial quick counts from about a dozen private pollsters that showed Jokowi with a comfortable win, dealing a blow to Prabowo’s claim of having garnered 62 percent of the votes. The former Suharto-era general has claimed “massive fraud” in the election, a charge authorities said was “unfounded” and meant to “de-legitimise the government and election organisers.”
Prabowo’s campaign team remains confident of victory as votes from his strongholds have yet to be counted, spokesman Andre Rosiade said. It was “strange and suspicious” that more votes from Jokowi’s base like Central Java were tallied compared to Prabowo strongholds such as West Java and Banten provinces, he said.
While Prabowo may still launch a legal challenge of the official result just like he did in 2014, his vice presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno has signalled that he’s open to working with Jokowi. “The interest of the country is first and foremost,” Uno said in an interview when asked if he would consider a cabinet post if Jokowi wins again and makes an offer.
Prabowo’s comments questioning the impartiality of election commission has sparked concerns his followers could hit the streets and cause unrest if the result went against him.