Indonesia set for repeat contest in 2019 presidential poll

[JAKARTA] Former Indonesian general Prabowo Subianto has accepted the endorsement of the main opposition party to stand as a candidate in a presidential election next year, setting the stage for a rematch with President Joko Widodo.

Mr Subianto, who narrowly lost the election, in 2014, to Mr Joko, is chairman of the nationalist Gerindra Party which forms the main opposition alongside two Islamic parties.

"We have affirmed that Mr Prabowo is ready to be a presidential candidate and has received the party's mandate to proceed as presidential candidate in 2019," Gerindra deputy chairman Arief Poyuono said by telephone from a party meeting.

Gerindra spokesman Irawan Ronodipuro said Mr Subianto had accepted the party's mandate on Wednesday evening.

A presidential candidate needs the support of parties that together won 25 per cent of the national vote in the previous legislative election or have 20 per cent of seats in parliament.

Mr Joko, a former furniture salesman, is Indonesia's first president to come from outside the political and military elite.

He has gained the support of five parties and is currently well ahead in most opinion polls.

An Indo Barometer Survey conducted in late January gave Mr Joko 48.8 per cent support, with Mr Subianto at 22.3 per cent and 28.9 per cent undecided.

While in office, Mr Joko has led a push to build infrastructure though annual growth in South-east Asia's biggest economy, at about 5 per cent, has yet to reach the 7 per cent he pledged when campaigning in 2014.

Mr Subianto appeared to improve his political prospects last year after backing a successful challenge by former education minister Anies Baswedan to win the powerful post of Jakarta governor.

But the bitterly fought campaign to unseat the ethnic Chinese, Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a close ally of Mr Joko, exposed deep religious and ethnic divisions in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country.

REUTERS