Indonesia: Muslim candidate takes lead in Jakarta’s governor run hinh anh 1Anies Baswedan and his wife cast their vote (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)
Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s former minister of education and culture Anies Baswedan is taking the lead over the current governor of Jakarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama in the second round of the Jakarta governor election on April 19.

A quick count shortly after the polling stations closed at 13:00 the same day (Hanoi time) showed that the Muslim candidate received 56-57 percent of votes while his Christian competitor got 41-43 percent.

Earlier the same day, about 7.2 million voters registered to cast their ballots to select Jakarta’s governor.

The first round of the election took place in February with Purnama’s victory, but the difference between votes of support the two candidates received was too small.

Indonesian authorities mobilised over 60,000 security personnel to protect the election after a protest against Purnama last year turned into a riot.

The election of Jakarta’s governor is of significant importance as politicians held that this is a crucial step for the winner to join the presidential election in 2019.

As scheduled, Indonesia’s national election committee will announce the official election result in early May.-VNA
VNA