How social media saw election day
Yesterday, Indonesia headed to the polls to choose its first new present for a decade. Late on Wednesday, the result was not entirely clear: both Joko Widodo, the governor of Jakarta, and former army general Prabowo Subianto are claiming victory.
Here’s how election day played out on social media, and what we know so far.
Background
AIYA’s own Liam Gammon (@Gammonator) prepared a handy backgrounder before polls opened, outlining the basics of the process:
Did we mention that this election is huge? It’s the world’s biggest single-day direct presidential election, with nearly 190 million voters on thousands of islands eligible to participate. That means that, with the limited resources available to it, Indonesia’s electoral commission, the Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU), can’t possibly count the votes on election day like we’re used to in Australia. The official KPU numbers won’t be released until some time after the election day.
So, private polling agencies team up with TV networks to release ‘quick counts’, which are based upon data sent in by reporters stationed at a randomly-selected sample of voting booths. These quick counts are generally accurate to within a few percentage points—but given that recent opinion polls predict an extremely close result tomorrow, the quick counts potentially may not make it clear who has actually won on Wednesday. It may take days, weeks or even months to know the official outcome if the result is particularly tight.
There’s no question: today’s poll is massive.
Indonesia is employing 4.1 million poll workers today. That’s more than the population of Los Angeles.
— Aaron Connelly (@ConnellyAL) July 9, 2014
Voting overseas
Overseas polling took place on Saturday, with expats heading to consulates in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and the Indonesian embassy in Canberra to cast their vote.
The papers
Here’s a quick sampling of the papers from the morning of the poll — click to enlarge each image.
Getting ready
As with April’s legislative elections, Twitter was abuzz with photos and tweets from volunteers and polling booths preparing for the day ahead.
Some saksi (scrutineers) at a primary school polling booth in South Jakarta. pic.twitter.com/o08WiuGD95
— NewMandala Indonesia (@IndoNewMandala) July 9, 2014
7am. The mosque next door announces voting is open. #pilpres — Kate Walton (@waltonkate) July 9, 2014
Best wishes to all Indonesian voters today. Selamat menyoblos. GM — Greg Moriarty (@DubesAustralia) July 9, 2014
Many Indonesians had been preoccupied with this morning’s World Cup match between Brazil and Germany. Prabowo’s neice Rahuyu Saraswati Djojohadikusomo, herself a Gerindra politican, attempted to draw a link between that match and the poll: Taking part in yesterday’s elections was simple: voters just needed to puncture (or mencoblos) the name or photo of their chosen candidate:
Ini Tata Cara dan Urutan Mencoblos yang Benar http://t.co/603neI0fc6 pic.twitter.com/sVbpBsiVUX
— Liputan6.com (@liputan6dotcom) July 9, 2014
Polls open
Once polls opened, it wasn’t long before tweets and selfies from Indonesians began to flood in. News channel KompasTV encouraged voters to tweet their photos under the hashtage #PilihanGue.
#pilihangue Tweets
Yep, it’s selfie day.
Ini hari Selfie
— marco (@mkusumawijaya) July 9, 2014
Here’s the notorious Julia Perez:
Coblos km neh pic.twitter.com/xmABfWPv2j — juliaperez (@juliaperrez) July 9, 2014
…journalists with Al Jazeera:
Aljazeera crew has cast their votes pic.twitter.com/KMSqWyBZu8 — step vaessen (@stepvaessen) July 9, 2014
…and our own friends from AyoVote:
#MemilihUntukMemilih @ChangeOrg_ID @AyoVote #Pemilu2014 pic.twitter.com/ZhhpjMaodD
— Pingkan Irwin (@Pingkan) July 9, 2014
A pair of (terrifying) clowns cast their vote in Semarang.
FOTO: Duo Badut Semarakkan Pilpres di Semarang http://t.co/RkbtlHo0ht pic.twitter.com/gj48DCYTap
— BeritaSatu.com (@Beritasatu) July 9, 2014
Indonesia’s election agency, the KPU, even opened a polling booth for patients and staff at this hospital in central Jakarta:
TPS istimewa di Jakarta tampung para pasien dan pekerja medis. http://t.co/ue4bNt39AR pic.twitter.com/2hF27fFcAR — A+ Indonesia (@aplusindonesia) July 9, 2014
Detainees at the Corruption Eradication Commission also excercised their deomcratic rights:
Tahanan selesai nyoblos, kotak suara di TPS Rutan KPK disegel #palsel14 pic.twitter.com/IMQzDeGpvv — Icha Rastika (@icharastika) July 9, 2014
The candidates vote
Prabowo voted at a polling booth in Bojong Keneng, West Java.
FOTO: Prabowo Nyoblos di TPS Bojong Koneng http://t.co/3meewm5QiS pic.twitter.com/00IjdKyOHn
— BeritaSatu.com (@Beritasatu) July 9, 2014
Meanwhile, Jokowi voted with his wife Iriana at TPS 18 in Menteng, close to the governor’s residence in Menteng.
[FOTONEWS] Jokowi Gunakan Hak Suara di TPS 18 http://t.co/QJk1VoWuHy pic.twitter.com/NCVFwt5pWy
— METRO TV (@Metro_TV) July 9, 2014
Here’s Jokowi’s running mate Jusuf Kalla, with grandchildren, before he cast his vote:
Bersama para cucu sebelum ke TPS pic.twitter.com/sfS4MeSVEZ — Muhammad Jusuf Kalla (@Pak_JK) July 9, 2014
Prabowo’s vice presidential candidate Hatta Rajasa voted at TPS 01 in Jejawi, South Sumatra:
Cawapres Hatta Rajasa & keluarga mencoblos di Kp. Halamannya di TPS 01 Desa Jejawi, Ogan Komering Ilir, Sumsel. pic.twitter.com/IrOIxWUDHt — Dakta Radio (@DaktaRadio) July 9, 2014
And because I can’t help myself, SBY and Ibu Ani, resplendent in matching batik at their polling booth in Cikeas, near Bogor:
Polls close
Polls closed quite early in the afternoon, at 1pm — allowing sufficient for polling booth workers to finish counting votes in daylight.
At the count in Taman Suropati, where officials hold up ballots to show the voter’s choice pic.twitter.com/KSsiR6yDUe
— Ben Bland (@benjaminbland) July 9, 2014
Some of the first exit polls pointed to a Jokowi lead in key provinces:
RT @CSISIndonesia: Exit Poll Jawa Barat: Prabowo-Hatta 53.54% Jokowi-JK 39.8% Rahasia 6.79% Tidak jawab 0.58%
— Aaron Connelly (@ConnellyAL) July 9, 2014
The Lowy Institute’s Aaron Connelly points to this Reuters article explaining the significance of West Java as a “battleground province” for the two candidates. Not long after, the first quick count polls (hitung cepat) began to appear. Again, many suggested that Jokowi was out in front:
Hasil sementara #HitungCepatKompas: Prabowo-Hatta 45,49% vs 54,51% Jokowi-JK. Sample: 50,95% |http://t.co/aEcnJBCP0R. pic.twitter.com/0bqKrmWGRi — Kompas.com (@kompascom) July 9, 2014
This would mostly be from outside of Java. RT @saifulmujani: Hasil sementara QuickCount SMRC. Data masuk: 53.38%. pic.twitter.com/iB5vVtRjHo — Aaron Connelly (@ConnellyAL) July 9, 2014
But not all pollsters agreed. Media outlets including tvOne, owned by Prabowo supporter Aburizal Bakrie, called the election for Prabowo:
Bang @BiLLYKOMPAS di tvone capres sebelah menang tuh. “prabowo menang versi hitung cepat”, katanya. pic.twitter.com/zP0o4sHjAV
— Achmad S Rofie (@sjari_a) July 9, 2014
Every quick count I’ve seen is handing victory to @jokowi_do2 . Then again I’m not watching TVOne #Pilpres2014
— catriona_cc (@catriona_cc) July 9, 2014
TV networks used an array of dazzling charts and graphics to visualise the result…
There appears to be a house band on Metro TV’s election coverage pic.twitter.com/FNIss9xzn6 — Tim Cooke (@tim_cooke) July 9, 2014
…but behind the scenes, the process was really pretty old fashioned:
Survey agencies also tally votes as they are read out for their “quick counts”. The process is a public spectacle pic.twitter.com/hBUgGwPDHy — Ben Bland (@benjaminbland) July 9, 2014
Jokowi declares victory
An hour and a half after voting ended, PDI-P head Megawati Sukarnoputri appeared at a press conference claiming victory for her candidate, Jokowi.
Megawati claims victory for Jokowi! “According to the quick count polls, it can be declared that the president … will be Joko Widodo + JK”
— Michael Bachelard (@mbachelard) July 9, 2014
tvOne’s attention was elsewhere.
Wes siap TV akeh yoo, wan. Hhmmm… “@Stakof: TV One paling beda. Sudahlah. Kalian sudah lelah. Istirahatlah pic.twitter.com/Uxo8Yzyf9B”
— M Hanifa Assegaf نعم (@assegaf248) July 9, 2014
Then things got confusing. Soon after, Prabowo held his own press conference, claiming victory for himself, and thanking the public for their mandate.
Prabowo: Kami mendapat dukungan dan mandat dari rakyat. #Pilpres2014 pic.twitter.com/TFZPDcnLjJ — KOMPAS TV (@KompasTV) July 9, 2014
Chants of “Prabowo president” from his supporters. Aburizal Bakrie punches the air. — Michael Bachelard (@mbachelard) July 9, 2014
SBY took to twitter to warn both sides against claiming victory prematurely.
Presiden SBY minta kedua kubu capres/cawapres utk tahan diri, tdk lakukan pengerahan massa ke jalan rayakan kemenangan, hingga penetapan KPU
— S. B. Yudhoyono (@SBYudhoyono) July 9, 2014
Jokowi supporters might have missed this memo, however, with a large group starting to gather at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in central Jakarta.
Jokowi supporters gathering at Bunderan HI. Festive mood despite conflicting results. pic.twitter.com/Cz0xWSao3r
— Alice Budisatrijo (@alicebudi) July 9, 2014
Motorbike cavalcade with Jokowi flags just passed through Gondangdia honking loudly. Celebrating already? @IndoNewMandala — Liam Gammon (@Gammonator) July 9, 2014
This crazy dude and his pals swam across Bundaran HI fountain and climbed the column to hang a Jokwoi banner pic.twitter.com/NaNGHN1dye — Ben Bland (@benjaminbland) July 9, 2014
The candidate himself made an appearance soon after.
Jokowi at Proklomasi Monument: “Today Indonesia has decided its course”
— Michael Bachelard (@mbachelard) July 9, 2014
In his speech, Jokowi also insisted on the correctness of the quick counts he relies on. He’s publicly stamping his claim to the presidency
— Michael Bachelard (@mbachelard) July 9, 2014
In response, Prabowo makes an appearance on tvOne.
Prabowo on TV now. Not accepting the quick counts that give Jokowi win. Says his alliance win in many provinces. — Helen Brown (@hbrown10) July 9, 2014
“Leave it to the KPU” says Prabowo. — Michael Bachelard (@mbachelard) July 9, 2014
The two candidates met with SBY at his residence last night.
At the request of both presidential candidates, @SBYudhoyono to meet Prabowo-Hatta and Joko-Kalla— separately — at his residence tonight
— The Jakarta Globe (@thejakartaglobe) July 9, 2014
President @SBYudhoyono shows Prabowo and Hatta his election “war room” pic.twitter.com/P4U0uaDIf4
— Ben Bland (@benjaminbland) July 9, 2014
In Australia
The ABC spoke to a number of Indonesian communities in Melbourne. The response to the result at Carlton’s Garage Cafe was close to unanimous:
87% of Indonesian voters in Aust chose Jokowi – Del Irani @an_news #IndonesiaElection2014 @del_irani @ABCNews24 pic.twitter.com/jCnjQhbLUa
— Clement Paligaru (@paligaru) July 9, 2014
Result in Victoria, Jokowi -JK 88%, Prabowo 12%. Jokowi’s supporters celebrate in Garage cafe#pilpres2014 pic.twitter.com/ta509Yd6rQ
— Dian Fatwa (@DianFatwa) July 9, 2014
The ABC also spoke to ASPI’s Natalie Sambhi on the next president’s foreign policy, Roy Morgan’s Debnath Guharoy on the poll itself, Jacqui Baker on the story outside Jakarta, Dave McRae on the future of the bilateral relationship and Kompas TV manager Yulia Supadmo on how the media approached the poll.
Here’s how the expat vote across Australia played out: more than 20,000 votes were cast in total.
8. Perolehan suara Pilpres se-AUSTRALIA: (1) Prabowo-Hatta: 2.679 suara (13%); (2) Jokowi-JK: 17.502 suara (87%). Total: 20.181. #Australia
— Pan Mohamad Faiz (@panmohamadfaiz) July 9, 2014
This trend appeared to be reflected in expat communities around the world. Here are the results of one exit poll broadcast by BeritaSatu:
Hasil exit poll di beberapa pilpres di luar negeri. #GerakCepat pic.twitter.com/jToKpiGS2w
— Gerak Cepat (@gerakcepat_ID) July 8, 2014
This morning’s front pages
Based on a quick (and very unscientific) look through the front pages of this morning’s papers, many outlets — including the respected national broadsheet Kompas — are declaring a Jokowi-JK victory.
Koran Sindo, a pro-Prabowo paper, owned by Bakrie’s MNC group, wasn’t available at the time we published this post.
What happens next?
Right now, it appears both candidates are waiting until July 22, when the initial results from the official “manual count” will be released by Indonesia’s KPU.
For more reading on the results overnight, check out:
- New Mandala, the Wall Street Journal‘s Southeast Asia Realtime blog and The Guardian all ran minute-by-minute live blogs.
- The Financial Times, ABC News and Fairfax all have good recaps on what we know so far.
- The University of Melbourne’s Election Watch website has been quick off the mark, with analysis from Professor Tim Lindsey — who claims a Jokowi victory — and Lily Yulianti Farid. Check out their Twitter feed to see how Australian papers are covering the result this morning.
- The New York Times: “Jakarta Governor Says He Appears to Have Won Indonesian Presidential Election“, Bloomberg: “Widodo Takes Lead in Indonesia Election Unofficial Tally“, The Australian: “Joko Widodo set to usher in a new era for Jakarta“, Al Jazeera: “Jokowi’s victory claim disputed in Indonesia“.
We’ll have more commentary and analysis in tomorrow’s AIYA Links.