Voting Begins in Indonesia Presidential, Legislative Elections

(Bloomberg) -- Voting began in the eastern parts of Indonesia in the first simultaneous presidential and legislative elections in which incumbent Joko Widodo is seeking re-election to run the world’s fourth-most populous nation for another five years.

Voters in Papua and Maluku are the first to cast their ballots in the polls that open at 7 a.m. local time Wednesday, according to the General Elections Commission. Almost 191 million residents are eligible to vote across the country.

Widodo, known as Jokowi, is fighting former general Prabowo Subianto in a rematch of the 2014 elections, which he won with a narrow margin. The legislative elections will see more than 245,000 candidates vie for 20,527 seats on national, provincial and municipal bodies.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ruth Pollard in Jakarta at rpollard2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brockett at mbrockett1@bloomberg.net

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