Indonesia’s Widodo calls for unity as divided Jakarta goes to the polls

Reuters: Indonesia’s president called for unity as he cast his vote in Wednesday’s election for Jakarta’s governor, a contest between a Muslim and a Christian candidate that has stoked religious tensions in the capital of the world’s third-largest democracy.

Police said voting proceeded smoothly through the morning across the city of 10 million people, after what the Jakarta Post this week dubbed “the dirtiest, most polarising and most divisive” election campaign the nation had ever seen.

“Political differences should not break our unity,” President Joko Widodo said in a statement after casting his ballot at a central Jakarta polling station. “We are all brothers and sisters. Whoever is elected, we must accept.”

Opinion polls in the run-up to the election pointed to a dead-heat between the incumbent governor, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama – the city’s first Christian and ethnic-Chinese leader – and a former education minister, Anies Baswedan, who like 85% of Jakarta’s residents, is Muslim.

Given Jakarta’s outsized importance as both the nation’s capital and commercial centre, the election is viewed as a barometer for a 2019 presidential election.

Purnama is backed by President Joko Widodo’s ruling party. Baswedan, is backed by a conservative retired general, Prabowo Subianto, who lost to Widodo in a 2014 presidential vote and may challenge him again.

But the election is also viewed as a test for Indonesia’s young democracy and record of religious tolerance, with both sides raising concerns about intimidation and voter fraud.

The campaign featured mass rallied led by a hardline Islamist movement, which has strengthened in recent yerars in a country long dominated by a moderate form of Islam.

“Don’t let any cheating happen, because the future of Jakarta is determined by the election today,” Purnama, 50, told reporters after voting with his family in North Jakarta.

His rival, 47-yeaer-old Baswedan, said as he voted in the south of the city that the election was “a celebration of democracy”, which was being closely watched both at home and abroad and so it was important there should not be an atmosphere of tension.

Security appeared light at several polling stations, though police said 66,000 personnel were deployed across the city.

Police in neighbouring provinces on Java island searched private cars and public buses heading for Jakarta on Tuesday to look for sharp objects and explosives.