Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, 72, is the confirmed winner of Indonesia's 2024 presidential election.

On March 20, the Indonesian election commission (KPU) released the final, official numbers of the February 2024 presidential election, confirming Prabowo's victory.

58.6 per cent of total votes

In his third bid to become Indonesia's president, Prabowo and his running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, managed to secure a resounding victory, securing 58.6 per cent of the total vote, CNBC Indonesia reported.

This represented about 96. 2 million votes.

Former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and his running mate, Muhaimin Iskandar, secured 24.9 per cent of the total vote, nearly 41 million votes.

Meanwhile, former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and his running mate, Mahfud MD, trailed behind at 16.5 per cent of the total vote, about 27 million votes.

The total number of votes cast was 164,227,475.

Prabowo will take office when current President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo steps down from his role in October 2024.

Dominated 36 out of 38 provinces

In the official national recapitulation, Prabowo and Gibran successfully dominated in 36 out of 38 provinces, according to Tribun News.

Anies Muhaimin won in two out of 38 provinces while Ganjar and Mahfud did not win in any province.

Challenges ahead for Prabowo

Despite having secured the majority of the votes, Prabowo's journey to the top office has met with some friction.

Over the past few days, hundreds of Indonesians protested outside the elections commission in Jakarta, demanding Jokowi's ouster for alleged electoral fraud, according to Benar News.

Many observers alleged that the outgoing president had interfered and showed favouritism in the Feb. 14 general election.

The election saw Prabowo and his running mate, Jokowi's oldest son, becoming Indonesia's next leaders.

"We feel that democracy has been utterly violated by Jokowi, and we demand that the House of Representatives impeach him," the protesters' spokesperson said to Benar News.

Planned to contest presidential result

Prabowo is also facing pressure from another presidential candidate, Anies.

Last Wednesday (Mar. 13), the former Jakarta governor said that he planned to file a case at the country's Constitutional Court to contest the presidential result, Reuters reported.

"When we are talking about free and fair elections this also means that the state takes a neutral position toward any contestants and organises the election in a neutral way," Anies said, as quoted by Reuters. 

"That has been absent."

Right to challenge the result

Indonesia's election law gives the losing candidate pair the right to challenge the result of the presidential election, according to CNN Indonesia.

They have three days to register a formal complaint over the general election results with the constitutional court.

Top image via Prabowo Subianto/Facebook.