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1 1 (March 18, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govyiz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ~.Research Service Indonesia Prepares for Election Rematch March 18, 2019 Voters in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, are scheduled to go to the polls on April 17 to elect a President and the 560 members of the People's Representative Council, Indonesia's national Parliament. This will be Indonesia's fourth direct presidential election and the first time presidential and parliamentary polls are to be simultaneous. It is also expected to be one of the largest democratic exercises in the world: among democracies, Indonesia trails only India and the United States in the size of its electorate. The presidential polls pit the same two candidates who contested the last elections in 2014: President Joko Widodo and former army Special Forces commander Prabowo Subianto. Widodo, almost universally known by his nickname, Jokowi, won the bitterly contested previous election by 9 million votes. Most opinion polls show him once again holding a lead over Prabowo, but the advantage may be narrowing as election day nears. To many observers, the elections represent another step in the entrenching of democracy in Indonesia, serving as a prominent counterpoint to concerns that democracy is in decline in many parts of the world, including in Southeast Asia. Indonesia was led by an authoritarian government from 1965 to 1998, when popular protests brought down former President Suharto and ushered in a newly competitive political system. Widodo is the fifth president since then, and the second since direct presidential polls were introduced in 2004. Despite some irregularities, international observers have considered each of the presidential elections to have been free and fair. What's at Stake? Indonesia is an important player in many issues of import to the United States and to Congress. This year, it began a two-year stint as a nonpermanent member of the U.N. Security Council. As the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, its policies towards religious tolerance (enshrined in the Constitution) and towards combatting violent extremism and terrorism are of interest to many in Congress. As the largest country in Southeast Asia, it plays a leadership role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the multilateral forum that seeks to promote regional economic integration and to address tensions in the South China Sea by negotiating a Code of Conduct for parties in those waters. Indonesia has welcomed Chinese infrastructure investment, including the construction of a high-speed railway Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11077 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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