Indonesia's General Elections Commission on Monday declared three candidates -- Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, 72, former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo, 55, and former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan, 54, -- and their respective running mates eligible to run.
While the open campaign period does not officially start until Nov. 28, the hopefuls have begun touting their agendas at public forums.
Support for Palestine has quickly become a key plank amid the onslaught in Gaza, with all three reaffirming Indonesia's long-standing support for Palestine. Southeast Asia's largest economy is home to the world's largest Muslim population. It is a secular country where Islamic-leaning political parties for many years have struggled to gain ground in national elections. Religious issues, however, sometimes play pivotal roles in determining how Muslims vote.
"We call on the world to uphold justice ... to wake up and take action," Anies said in a fiery speech before tens of thousands of people who attended a rally in support of Palestine in Jakarta on Nov. 5. "Don't stay silent when our brothers and sisters are being trampled on ... when children are withering before their time. Let's all move to blockade Israel, to demand a cease-fire and ask them to take responsibility."
Prabowo, the defense minister, has publicized his involvement in government missions to support Palestine, from deploying military aircraft for delivery of humanitarian aid to offering the dispatch of a hospital ship to Gaza.
"From the earliest day, all Indonesian [presidents] support the struggle of the Palestinian people to have their own state, to have their independence," Prabowo said on Monday during a foreign policy dialogue hosted by CSIS Indonesia, a think tank. "We have been colonized. We understand [how it is to be] colonized. I will continue this [support] because that is the policy ... demanded and required by our people."
Israeli forces have been staging air and ground raids in Gaza to wipe out Hamas after the militant group, which controls the strip, made its deadly incursion into Israel on Oct. 7. Israeli strikes on Gaza have sparked criticism for their toll on civilians, with countries calling for a humanitarian pause to the fighting.
Ganjar last week criticized the United Nations' inability to take meaningful action to stop the bloodshed in Gaza, saying Indonesia must widen its diplomatic lobbying to help resolve the conflict. He proposed establishing a special peace mission within the foreign ministry tasked with mediating conflicts.
On the economic front, the three tickets' election manifestos are also largely similar -- basically continuations of Widodo's flagship policies, including the development of the minerals processing industry, his infrastructure drive and the buildup of a digital economy, as well as a more recent push to develop an electric vehicle ecosystem and low-carbon economy.
The differences are more in the emphases. Prabowo is strong on resource nationalism and self-sufficiency rhetoric, Ganjar on refining existing programs and Anies on improving the country's distribution of wealth.
Prabowo, who chose Widodo's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming, 36, as his running mate, told an economic conference last week that he was committed to continuing "Jokowinomics."
"We want Indonesia to make our own cars, our own motorbikes, our own EVs," the defense minister added. "We have [to build] water self-sufficiency, food self-sufficiency and energy self-sufficiency."
Prabowo said he also would continue to develop the nation's defense industry and would expand a program to convert peatlands on Sumatra and Borneo islands into agricultural farms to turn Indonesia into "a global food silo."
Ganjar is a senior politician with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), of which Widodo is a member. His election manifesto includes a "commitment to continuing the development of Nusantara," Indonesia's planned new capital on Borneo island, which Widodo is eager to pursue.
Apart from that, Ganjar said rather than taking on new infrastructure projects he would first focus on maximizing the utilization of some newly built ports, airports and toll roads that have attracted little traffic.
Anies, a former education minister and now an opposition figure, says he will bring "changes" but has given few specifics. So far he has shrugged off the capital relocation plan and emphasized the need to tackle income disparity and unemployment problems.
"Investments have been on the increase, but jobs [created] have significantly fallen," he said, adding Indonesia has to do more than simply invite "foreign investments ... we also have to remove constraints for micro-, small and medium-size [local] businesses."
As for economic growth, Ganjar has set the most ambitious targets, including 7% economic growth annually through 2029 versus the current rate of around 5%. Anies has offered the most detailed figures, from tax-to-GDP and debt-to-GDP ratios to inflation and unemployment rates through 2029.
Experts, however, note a lack of clear pathways to the targets.
"Ganjar especially has very high targets, from economic growth, manufacturing industry growth, poverty reduction and tourism," Mohammad Faisal, executive director of the Center of Reform on Economics, a local think tank, told Nikkei Asia. "But what are the strategies? There obviously needs to be big efforts, new breakthroughs [that are] more effective than what has been done before."
Toto Pranoto, a University of Indonesia economist, said Indonesia needs to achieve 7% annual growth to escape the middle-income trap and gain high-income country status by 2045 -- the nation's centennial anniversary. All three candidates share this vision. "But what are the action plans toward that?" he wondered. "The platforms are all basically the same."
He added the candidates need to draw up strategies to invite more global investors and boost Indonesia's export competitiveness, including through the decarbonization of production processes.
Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a political science professor at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta, says not one of the country's political parties really stands out.
"It has long been my concern that our elections are too much about gimmicks, about non-substantial rivalries," Muhtadi said. "Subsequently, there is no differentiation in programs -- they all tend to be populist."