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Navalny’s wife expresses skepticism over reports from Russian government sources
Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, blamed the reported death of her husband on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his regime, saying they are responsible for all of the “terrible things” being done to the country and predicting that they won’t remain in power for long.
Speaking from the main stage at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Navalnaya said that if her husband did in fact die — expressing skepticism because her team had only heard it from Russian government sources — she wants Putin and his friends in power to know that they “bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family and to my husband.”
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russia’s Putin, has died in a Russian prison
She said she wavered on whether to speak at the conference or to fly straight to the couple’s two children.
“But then I thought what Alexey would do in my place. And I’m sure he would be here. He would be on this stage.”
Who is Navalny? Protests, poisoning and prison, a look at the life of a Russian opposition leader
Who is Navalny? Protests, poisoning and prison, a look at the life of a Russian opposition leader
Alexei Navalny, Russia's top opposition leader and President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe, died in prison on Friday, a statement from the Federal Penitentiary Service said.
Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism, felt unwell after a walk and collapsed, it said. The politician's team had no immediate confirmation of his death.
Navalny was moved in December from his former prison in central Russia to to a "special regime" penal colony — the highest security level of prisons in Russia — above the Arctic Circle.
In a span of a decade, he went from being the Kremlin's biggest foe to Russia's most prominent political prisoner.
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russia’s Putin, has died in a Russian prison
Here's a look at key events in Navalny's life, political activism and the charges he has faced through the years:
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region.
1997 — Graduates from Russia's RUDN university, where he majored in law; earns a degree in economics in 2001 while working as a lawyer.
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant overdevelopment in Moscow, according to his campaign website.
2008 — Gains notoriety for alleging corruption in state-run corporations, such as gas giant Gazprom and oil behemoth Rosneft, through his blogs and other posts.
2010 — Founds RosPil, an anti-corruption project run by a team of lawyers that analyzes spending of state agencies and companies, exposing violations and contesting them in court.
2011 — Establishes the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which will become his team's main platform for exposing alleged graft among Russia's top political ranks.
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia's parliamentary election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for "defying a government official."
Russia s Navalny asks court to end prison security checks
March 2012 — Following President Vladimir Putin's reelection and inauguration, mass protests break out in Moscow and elsewhere. Navalny accuses key figures, including then-Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Chechnya's strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, of corruption.
July 2012 — Russia's Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement involving Kirovles, a state-owned timber company in the Kirov region, while acting as an adviser to the local governor. Navalny rejects the allegations as politically motivated.
December 2012 — The Investigative Committee launches another probe into alleged embezzlement at a Navalny-linked Russian subsidiary of Yves Rocher, a French cosmetics company. Navalny again says the allegations are politically motivated.
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow — a move the authorities not only allow but encourage in an attempt to put a veneer of democracy on the race that is designed to boost the profile of the incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin.
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison. The prosecution petitions to release Navalny from custody pending his appeal, and he resumes his campaign.
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor's race behind Sobyanin, with 27% of the vote, after a successful electoral and fundraising campaign collecting an unprecedented 97.3 million rubles ($2.9 million) from individual supporters.
October 2013 — A court hands Navalny a suspended sentence in the Kirovles case.
Russian opposition leader Navalny sentenced to 19 years in prison
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest in connection with the Yves Rocher case and banned from using the internet. His blog continues to be updated regularly, presumably by his team, detailing alleged corruption by various Russian officials.
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud in the Yves Rocher case. Navalny receives a 3 ½-year suspended sentence, while his brother is handed a prison term. Both appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
December 2015 — Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption releases its first long-form video — a YouTube documentary called "Chaika," which means "seagull" in Russian but is also the last name of then-Prosecutor General Yury Chaika. The 44-minute video accuses him of corruption and alleged ties to a notorious criminal group and has piled up 26 million views on YouTube. Chaika and other Russian officials deny the accusations.
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny's right to a fair trial in the Kirovles case, ordering the government to pay his legal costs and damages.
November 2016 — Russia's Supreme Court overturns Navalny's sentence and sends the case back to the original court in the city of Kirov for review.
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia's 2018 presidential election.
‘Navalny,’ about dissident fighting Kremlin, wins doc Oscar
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013.
March 2017 — Navalny releases a YouTube documentary accusing then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption, getting over seven million views in its first week. A series of anti-graft protests across Russia draw tens of thousands and there are mass arrests. Navalny tours the country to open campaign offices, holds big rallies and is jailed repeatedly for unauthorized demonstrations.
April 27, 2017 — Unidentified assailants throw a green disinfectant in his face, damaging his right eye. He blames the attack on the Kremlin.
October 2017 — The European Court of Human Rights finds Navalny's fraud conviction in the Yves Rocher case to be "arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable."
December 2017 — Russia's Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president over his conviction in the Kirovles case, a move condemned by the EU as casting "serious doubt" on the election.
Russian court outlaws opposition leader Navalny s groups
July 2019 — Members of Navalny's team, along with other opposition activists, are barred from running for Moscow city council, sparking protests that are violently dispersed, with thousands arrested. Navalny's team responds by promoting the "Smart Voting" strategy, encouraging the election of any candidate except those from the Kremlin's United Russia party. The strategy works, with the party losing its majority.
2020 — Navalny seeks to deploy the Smart Voting strategy during regional elections in September and tours Siberia as part of the effort.
Aug. 20, 2020 — On a flight from the city of Tomsk, where he was working with local activists, Navalny falls ill and the plane makes an emergency landing in nearby Omsk. Hospitalized in a coma, Navalny's team suspects he was poisoned.
Aug. 22, 2020 — A comatose Navalny is flown to a hospital in Berlin.
Aug. 24, 2020 — German authorities confirm Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent. After he recovers, he blames the Kremlin, an accusation denied by Russian officials.
Jan. 17, 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia, with authorities alleging his recuperation abroad violated the terms of his suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case. His arrest triggers some of the biggest protests in Russia in years. Thousands are arrested.
Feb. 2, 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison for his parole violation. While in prison, Navalny stages a three-week hunger strike to protest a lack of medical treatment and sleep deprivation.
Over 5,100 arrested at pro-Navalny protests across Russia
June 2021 — A Moscow court outlaws Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption and about 40 regional offices as extremist, shutting down his political network. Close associates and team members face prosecution and leave Russia under pressure. Navalny maintains contact with his lawyers and team from prison, and they update his social media accounts.
Feb. 24, 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine. Navalny condemns the war in social media posts from prison and during his court appearances.
March 22, 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court in a case his supporters rejected as fabricated. He is transferred to a maximum-security prison in Russia's western Vladimir region.
July 2022 — Navalny's team announces the relaunch of the Anti-Corruption Foundation as an international organization with an advisory board including Francis Fukuyama, Anne Applebaum, and the European Parliament member and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Navalny continues to file lawsuits in prison and tries to form a labor union in the facility. Officials respond by regularly placing him in solitary confinement over purported disciplinary violations such as failing to properly button his garment or to wash his face at a specified time.
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication after getting the flu. His team expresses concern about his health, saying in April he had acute stomach pain and suspected he was being slowly poisoned.
Behind the Kremlin's response to Navalny rallies
March 12, 2023 — "Navalny," a film about the attempt on the opposition leader's life, wins the Oscar for best documentary feature.
April 26, 2023 — Appearing on a video link from prison during a hearing, Navalny says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. He adds sardonically that the charges imply that "I'm conducting terror attacks while sitting in prison."
June 19, 2023 — The trial begins in a makeshift courtroom in the Penal Colony No. 6 where Navalny is held. Soon after it starts, the judge closes the trial to the public and media despite Navalny's objections.
July 20, 2023 — In closing arguments, the prosecution asks the court to sentence Navalny to 20 years in prison, his team reports. Navalny says in a subsequent statement that he expects his sentence to be "huge … a Stalinist term," referring to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Aug. 4, 2023 — Navalny is convicted of extremism and sentenced to 19 years, and he says he understands he's "serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime."
Oct. 13, 2023 — Authorities detain three lawyers representing Navalny after searching their homes, and his ally Ivan Zhdanov says on social media the move is a bid to "completely isolate Navalny." The raids targeting Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser are part of a criminal case on charges of participating in an extremist group, Zhdanov says. Navalny's spokesperson says if the opposition leader has no access to lawyers, "he will end up in complete isolation, the kind no one can really even imagine."
Dec. 2, 2023 — New charges are filed against Navalny. In comments passed to associates, Navalny says he has been charged under Article 214 of the penal code, covering vandalism. "I don't even know whether to describe my latest news as sad, funny or absurd," he writes on social media via his team. "I have no idea what Article 214 is, and there's nowhere to look. You'll know before I do."
Navalny defiant as Russian court rejects his bid for freedom
Dec. 7, 2023 — Navalny's team erects billboards across Russia featuring QR codes that lead smartphones to a hidden website urging Russians to take part in a campaign against Putin, who is expected to run for reelection in March 2024. Navalny's team say the vote is important for Putin as a referendum on his war in Ukraine, rather than a real contest for the presidency.
Dec. 11, 2023 — Navalny is scheduled to appear in court via video link but does not appear, and his spokeswoman says prison officials are citing electricity problems. Navalny's allies express concern, saying neither they nor his lawyers have heard from him in several weeks.
Dec. 25, 2023 — Navalny's allies say he's been located in a prison colony in the town of Kharp, north of the Arctic Circle, notorious for long and severe winters. It's about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Vorkuta, whose coal mines were among the harshest of the Soviet Gulag prison-camp system.
Jan. 10 — Navalny appears via video link from Kharp for the first time. Russian news outlets release images of him in black prison garb and with a buzz cut, on a live TV feed from the "special regime" penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. At the hearing, Navalny cracks jokes about Arctic weather and asks if officials at his former prison threw a party when he was transferred.
Feb. 16 — Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service says Navalny died in prison at the age of 47. It says he felt unwell after a walk and collapsed. An ambulance arrived but could not resuscitate him. Navalny's team says it has no confirmation of his death and that his lawyer is on the way to the Kharp penal colony.
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russia’s Putin, has died in a Russian prison
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison Friday, Russia's prison agency said. He was 47.
The Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to rehabilitate him, but he died.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Putin was informed of Navalny's death and the prison service was looking into the death in line with standard procedures.
Russian opposition leader Navalny sentenced to 19 years in prison
Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the politician's team had no confirmation of his death so far and that his lawyer was traveling to the town where he was held.
Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism, was moved in December from his former prison in the Vladimir region of central Russia to to a "special regime" penal colony — the highest security level of prisons in Russia — above the Artic Circle.
Russia s Navalny asks court to end prison security checks
His allies decried the transfer to a colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, as yet another attempt to force Navalny into silence.
The remote region is notorious for long and severe winters. Kharp is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Vorkuta, whose coal mines were part of the Soviet gulag prison-camp system.
Protests, poisoning and prison: A look at the life of Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny
Navalny had been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption, organized major anti-Kremlin protests and ran for public office.
He had since received three prison sentences, all of which he rejected as politically motivated.
In Putin's Russia, political opponents often faded amid factional disputes or went into exile after imprisonment, suspected poisonings or other heavy repression. But Navalny grew consistently stronger and reached the apex of the opposition through grit, bravado and an acute understanding of how social media could circumvent the Kremlin's suffocation of independent news outlets.
He faced each setback — whether it was a physical assault or imprisonment — with an intense devotion, confronting dangers with a sardonic wit. That drove him to the bold and fateful move of returning from Germany to Russia and certain arrest.
Navalny was born in Butyn, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside Moscow. He received a law degree from People's Friendship University in 1998 and did a fellowship at Yale in 2010.
He gained attention by focusing on corruption in Russia's murky mix of politicians and businesses; one of his early moves was to buy a stake in Russian oil and gas companies to become an activist shareholder and push for transparency. By concentrating on corruption, Navalny's work had a pocketbook appeal to Russians' widespread sense of being cheated, and he carried stronger resonance than more abstract and philosophical concerns about democratic ideals and human rights.
‘Navalny,’ about dissident fighting Kremlin, wins doc Oscar
He was convicted in 2013 of embezzlement on what he called a politically motivated prosecution and was sentenced to five years in prison, but the prosecutor's office later surprisingly demanded his release pending appeal. A higher court later gave him a suspended sentence.
The day before the sentence, Navalny had registered as a candidate for Moscow mayor. The opposition saw his release as the result of large protests in the capital of his sentence, but many observers attributed it to a desire by authorities to add a tinge of legitimacy to the mayoral election.
Navalny finished second, an impressive performance against the incumbent who had the backing of Putin's political machine and was popular for improving the capital's infrastructure and aesthetics.
Navalny's popularity increased after the leading charismatic politician, Boris Nemtsov, was shot and killed in 2015 on a bridge near the Kremlin.
Whenever Putin spoke about Navalny, he made it a point to never mention the activist by name, referring to him as "that person" or similar wording, in an apparent effort to diminish his importance.
Russian court mulls motion to outlaw Navalny s organizations
At least 11 dead in massive fire at paint factory in New Delhi
A massive fire swept through a paint factory in India's capital, New Delhi, killing at least 11 people and leaving four others injured, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
50 shanties gutted in Begunbari slum fire
Fire officials said that the blaze started late Thursday on the ground floor of the factory, trapping the victims on the floors above with no way out. The building, which also houses a chemical warehouse, is located in the Alipur area in northern New Delhi.
Fire damages feed and fertiliser factory in Gazipur
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
The charred bodies of the 11 victims were recovered from the rubble after 22 fire engines doused the flames after battling for more than five hours. The victims have not yet been identified.
At least 8 children among 22 hit by gunfire at end of Chiefs' Super Bowl parade; 1 person killed
Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents.
India's top court strikes down system for anonymous political donations ahead of national elections
India’s top court on Thursday struck down a controversial election funding system that allowed individuals and companies to send unlimited donations to political parties without the need to disclose donor identity, a system critics have long said is undemocratic and favored Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party.
A five-judge constitution bench on the Supreme Court ruled that “electoral bonds” are unconstitutional and violate citizens' right to information held by the government. It ordered the government-owned State Bank of India to stop issuing these bonds and provide details of donations made through them to the Election Commission of India.
The electoral bond scheme was introduced by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in 2017. Before that, political parties in India had to disclose the identity of any donor who gave more than 20,000 rupees (about $240). But the latest instrument of political financing allowed them to declare the amount of money they received through the bonds, but not the funders’ identity.
Read: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opens stone-built Hindu temple in UAE ahead of India's elections
These bonds were sold in denominations ranging from 1,000 rupees ($12) to 10 million rupees ($120,000).
Modi’s party has said the bonds have reformed political finance by eliminating the use of cash, but critics say the system is opaque due to the anonymous nature of the donations. They also say the state-owned bank has a record of donors and recipients, which makes it easy for the government to access the information and influence donors.
The Supreme Court's verdict comes just months ahead of a national election and is seen as a setback to Modi’s ruling party, which has been the largest beneficiary of the system.
From 2018 to 2023, anonymous donors have given more than $1.9 billion to political parties through these bonds, according to Association for Democratic Reforms, an election watchdog. It said between 2018 and March 2022 nearly 57% of these donations went to Modi’s BJP. In comparison, the opposition Congress party has only received 10%.
Only registered political parties that received a minimum of 1% of votes in a previous election for the parliament or a state assembly were eligible to receive these bonds.
Protesting Indian farmers clash with police for a second day as they march toward the capital
Protesting Indian farmers clashed with police for a second consecutive day on Wednesday as tens of thousands tried to march to the capital to demand guaranteed prices for their produce.
Police fired tear gas at the farmers near the Shambhu border, which divides northern Punjab and Haryana states, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from New Delhi. TV images also showed police using drones to drop tear gas canisters on the farmers, who tried to break through barricades made of cement blocks and barbed wires.
Tens of thousands of farmers, traveling on trucks and wagons loaded with food and other supplies, began marching toward the capital on Tuesday after talks between farm leaders and government ministers failed to produce any consensus on their key demand for legislation guaranteeing a minimum support price for their produce.
Read: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opens stone-built Hindu temple in UAE ahead of India's elections
The farmers are also pressing the government to follow through on its promise to double their income, waive their loans and withdraw legal cases brought against them during earlier 2021 protests, when they camped on the capital’s outskirts to demonstrate against controversial agriculture laws. Prime Minister Narendra Modi later withdrew the laws in a rare retreat and promised to find ways to ensure minimum support prices for all farm produce.
Some farmer and trade unions have announced a countrywide rural strike on Friday.
“We don’t want the government to say that farmers were being invited for talks but they are not coming. So we said that we are ready to have a discussion,” Jagjit Singh Dallewal, a leader of one of the farmer groups, told reporters.
Police in riot gear maintained tight security at multiple entry points into New Delhi to prevent the farmers from entering the capital. They blocked major highways with barriers made of giant metal containers, barbed wire, spikes and cement blocks. Mobile internet was suspended for a second day in some areas of Haryana to prevent communication among the protesters.
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The march comes just months before a national election in which Modi is widely expected to win a third term. The protests could pose a significant challenge for him and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party because farmers form a key voting bloc.
The farmers have received support from opposition parties, which have condemned the government’s attempt to block them from reaching the capital.
On Tuesday, the main opposition Congress party said it would pass legislation providing minimum support prices if it is voted into power in the upcoming national election.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opens stone-built Hindu temple in UAE ahead of India's elections
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Middle East's first traditional stone-built Hindu temple on Wednesday, internationalizing both his reelection campaign and his effort to push secular India into a Hindu state.
The trip to the BAPS Hindu Mandir just north of the city of Abu Dhabi capped Modi's whistlestop tour of the United Arab Emirates during which the Indian leader embraced the UAE's president, describing him as a brother and also spoke before a global leaders at a Dubai summit.
Modi is widely expected to win a third term as prime minister in the upcoming elections in India, the world's largest democracy. But Modi's policies and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party have raised concerns over India's future, particularly for members of its Muslim minority as they have come under attack in recent years by Hindu nationalist groups.
That has made warming Indian relations with the Muslim-led Gulf Arab states crucial not only for India's energy security and for millions of its expatriate workers in the region, but also its international standing.
Read: Thousands of Indian farmers are marching to New Delhi to renew their demands over crop prices
“Every part of the time that God has given me and the body that God has given me are all for Mother India,” Modi told the crowd gathered at the temple, drawing rapturous cheers in what at times resembled a campaign stop.
Even Hindu priest Brahmaviharidas Swami, who helped build the temple, made a point to repeatedly praise Modi's work, calling him “the most beloved prime minister perhaps that India has ever had.”
The temple in Abu Mureikha was built by the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha or BAPS, a worldwide religious and civic organization within the Swaminarayan sect. Modi has close ties to the organization.
Modi walked past the temple's seven spires, a nod to the autocratic UAE's seven sheikhdoms. He looked inside the temple, where earlier Wednesday a priest had consecrated the statues of deities, each worshipped by different Hindu denominations across India.
Modi waved to thousands gathered for the event, described as a Festival of Harmony. Children greeted Modi, others cheered as he toured the temple with priests.
“Today, the United Arab Emirates has written a golden chapter in human history," Modi told the crowd. "A beautiful and divine temple is being inaugurated here. Many years of hard work have been involved behind this moment."
Back in India, Modi in January opened a Hindu temple built on the ruins of a historic mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya.
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That temple is dedicated to Hinduism’s Lord Ram and had been wanted by Hindus who describe it as restoring a religion suppressed by centuries of Mughal and British colonial rule. But the 1992 demolition of the mosque at the site trigged riots across India that killed 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
Earlier Wednesday, Modi spoke before the World Governments Summit in Dubai, hosted by the city-state's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Much of the speech could be seen as a stump speech on the global stage, describing his years in power as pushing for “minimum government, maximum governance.”
“Over the years, the trust of the people of the country on the government of India has become stronger,” Modi said. “People have full faith in both the intentions and commitments of our government.”
“It is as a friend to the world that India is moving forward," he said.
Modi's personal touch on the trip, including embracing Emirati President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, seems aimed at further cementing ties with the UAE, an oil-rich country that supplies India's energy needs while also serving as a home for some 3.5 million of his countrymen abroad. Modi at one point urged people to give Sheikh Mohammed a standing ovation at the event.
The relationship also underscores the Emirates’ realpolitik foreign policy. Modi received the Emirates’ top civilian honor in 2019 even as he stripped statehood from the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
Indonesian defense chief linked to past rights abuses claims victory in presidential election
Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, an ex-general linked to past human rights atrocities, claimed victory in Indonesia's presidential election on Wednesday based on unofficial tallies.
The 72-year-old candidate, who was once banned by the United States from entering for two decades due to his human rights record, told thousands of supporters in a sports stadium in the capital, Jakarta, that the victory, according to an early, unofficial “quick count,” was “the victory of all Indonesians.”
There was no declaration by electoral officials and the two former provincial governors who also contested the election in the world's third-largest democracy have not conceded defeat.
Subianto has presented himself as an heir to immensely popular sitting President Joko Widodo and vowed to continue his economic development plans. Subianto, who chose Widodo's son has his running mate, was an army general during the brutal period of the Suharto dictatorship that ended just over 25 years ago. He served as a special forces commander in a unit linked to torture and disappearances, allegations that he vehemently denies.
According to the unofficial tallies conducted by Indonesian polling agencies, Subianto had between 57% and 59% of votes, with more than 80% of the vote counted in polling places sampled.
The quick counts are based on the actual vote count at a sample of polling stations across Indonesia. The laborious official count may not be finished for up to a month, but quick counts have provided an accurate picture of the results of all four presidential elections held in Indonesia since it began direct voting in 2004.
“We are grateful for the quick count results,” he said in the speech, broadcast on national television. “We should not be arrogant, we should not be proud, we should not be euphoric, we still have to be humble, this victory must be a victory for all Indonesian people.”
To avoid a runoff against his rivals, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, Subianto needs more than 50% of all votes cast and at least 20% in each of the country’s provinces.
Widodo’s successor will inherit an economy with impressive growth and ambitious infrastructure projects, including the ongoing transfer of the nation’s capital from congested Jakarta to the frontier island of Borneo at a staggering cost exceeding $30 billion.
The election also has high stakes for the United States and China, since Indonesia has a huge domestic market, natural resources like nickel and palm oil, and diplomatic influence with its Southeast Asian neighbors.
Widodo’s rise from a riverside slum to the presidency has shown the vibrancy of Indonesia’s democracy in a region rife with authoritarian regimes.
But with a leading candidate linked to a former dictator, and Widodo’s son on the ballot, some observers fear that democracy is eroding.
Indonesians voted on Wednesday in an election that took just six hours. The logistics of the vote across the tropical nation's 17,000 islands inhabited by 270 million people were daunting: Ballot boxes and ballots were transported by boats, motorcycles, horses and on foot in some of the more far-flung locations.
Aside from the presidency, some 20,000 national, provincial and district parliamentary posts were contested by tens of thousands of candidates in one of the world's largest elections, which authorities said concluded with no major problems. About 10,000 aspirants from 18 political parties eyed the national parliament’s 580 seats alone.
Voters interviewed by The Associated Press expressed hope their next leader would help them achieve greater prosperity in a country where nearly a tenth of the population still lives in poverty.
“I hope Indonesia can progress better and that I did not vote for the wrong person,” said Indra Nurohim, a 17-year-old high school student and first-time voter. “I hope we will have a better government.”
Subianto, the oldest presidential candidate at 72, lost in two previous runs to Widodo but was the front-runner in independent surveys. His running mate, Widodo's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, was allowed to run when the Constitutional Court made an exception to the minimum age requirement of 40. The court was then headed by Widodo’s brother-in-law, who was removed by an ethics panel for not recusing himself, and Widodo was accused of favoritism and nepotism.
Critics have accused Widodo of trying to build a political dynasty despite him being the first president to emerge from outside the political and military elite since the 1998 end of the dictatorial rule of Suharto, characterized by widespread human rights violations, plunder and political unrest.
Subianto, a former lieutenant general who married one of Suharto's daughters, was a longtime commander in the army special forces, called Kopassus. He was dishonorably discharged in 1998 after Kopassus forces kidnapped and tortured political opponents of Suharto.
Of at least 22 activists kidnapped that year, 13 remain missing to this day, and their families protest weekly outside the presidential palace demanding the activists be accounted for. Subianto never faced a trial and denied any involvement, although several of his men were tried and convicted.
During the campaign period that concluded last weekend, Subianto and his strategists used AI and social media platforms like TikTok to soften his image by portraying him as a cuddly grandfather to his youthful running mate. Rejected by human rights activists, he danced on the campaign stage and promised to generate nearly 20 million jobs in his first term if elected.
Baswedan, the former head of an Islamic university, served as governor of Jakarta until last year. A former Fulbright scholar, Baswedan was education and culture minister from 2014 to 2016, when Widodo removed him from the Cabinet after accusing him of failing to address problems of thousands of students affected by forest fires.
Baswedan opposes Widodo’s plan to move the Indonesian capital from Jakarta to Nusantara on Borneo island, which involves constructing government buildings and residential enclaves by clearing lush tropical rainforests.
In an interview with the AP last month, he said democracy in Indonesia is under threat, given Subianto’s choice of the president's son as running mate.
“This means that there is a decline in trust, it means that our democracy is experiencing a decline in quality, it means that many legal rules are being bent,” he said.
Pranowo is the governing party candidate but does not have Widodo's support. He was a national legislator for the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle for 10 years before being elected in 2013 for the first of two terms as governor of the vote-rich Central Java region.
While governor, Pranowo refused to allow Israel to participate in the Under-20 FIFA World Cup to be held in his province. FIFA subsequently dropped Indonesia as host of the games, angering Indonesian soccer fans and Widodo.
Israel and Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, do not have diplomatic ties.
Under Widodo, Indonesia saw a period of remarkable growth averaging 5% annually, except in 2020, when the economy contracted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
His economic roadmap, called “Golden Indonesia 2045,” projects Indonesia becoming one of the world’s top five economies with GDP of up to $9 trillion, exactly a century after it won independence from Dutch colonizers.
Pakistan's former premier Sharif and allies agree to form a coalition
The party of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and its allies announced late Tuesday that they will jointly form a coalition government, ending the uncertainty since last week when no party won a simple majority in parliamentary elections.
The latest development came hours after the parties — all of them rivals of the country's imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan — met in Islamabad.
The meeting was attended by the Pakistan People's Party of former President Asif Ali Zardari and by Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, including his younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, who replaced Khan when he was ousted through a no-confidence vote in parliament in 2022.
At a news conference with Zardari and other politicians, Shebaz Sharif did not say who would be the joint choice for prime minister, though it is widely believed that Sharif would head the new government. In his brief remarks, Sharif said that the talks on a coalition were successful.
“We have decided that we will form the government jointly," Zardari said.
Read: Pakistan's premier defends the delay in releasing election results and denies the vote was unfair
A spokesperson for the Pakistan Muslim League, Marriyum Aurangzeb, said that the elder Sharif — a three-time prime minister — had nominated his younger brother for the prime minister role.
The Pakistan Muslim League party had been in talks with Zardari and other allies after Thursday's election for the National Assembly or lower house of the parliament.
Though candidates backed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party won 93 out of 265 National Assembly seats, it was not enough to form a government. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League and Zardari's Pakistan People's Party won 75 and 54 seats respectively.
The surprisingly strong showing for Khan's party were a shock for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was marked out as the powerful security establishment’s preferred candidate following his smooth return to the country last October.
Pakistan’s military has always cast itself as the ultimate arbiter in who becomes prime minister.
Tuesday's move by the rivals of Khan came hours after Khan's PTI party refused to hold any talks with them. Khan, who is currently serving multiple prison terms because of convictions on charges of corruption and violating a marriage law, was disqualified from contesting the vote.
Read: Pakistan's election left no clear winner. So who is likely to govern and what happens next?
Members of Khan’s party also had to contest the vote as independent candidates after the Election Commission and Supreme Court stripped his party of its electoral symbol, which helps illiterate voters find candidates on the ballot. They also imposed other legal barriers.
Khan's party says last Thursday's vote was rigged to stop it from getting a majority in the parliament, a charge the election officials denied.
Under the constitution, Pakistan's President Arif Alvi will convene the inaugural National Assembly session before Feb. 29 so that lawmakers can be sworn in. The parliament will later elect the new prime minister.
The stakes in Indonesia as the world’s third-largest democracy elects a new president
Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, will open its polls on Wednesday to nearly 205 million eligible voters in presidential and legislative elections, the fifth since Southeast Asia’s largest economy began democratic reforms in 1998.
The sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands and more than 270 million people from about 1,300 ethnic groups is a bastion of democracy in Southeast Asia, a diverse and economically vibrant region of authoritarian regimes, police states and nascent democracies.
WHAT IS AT STAKE IN THE ELECTION?The presidential election will determine who will succeed President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, who is serving his second and final term.
The election is shaping up to be a three-way race among current Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and two former governors, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo. If none of the candidates secures more than 50% of the votes in the first round, a runoff between the top two is scheduled for June 26.
Tens of thousands of candidates across the world’s largest archipelago nation are battling for some 20,000 national, provincial and district parliamentary positions. About 10,000 candidates from 18 political parties are contesting for spots in the 580-seat national parliament alone.
Political parties are required to have a woman in at least every third position in their party list, and parties need at least 4% of votes across the country to qualify for representation in the national parliament.
A party or coalition of parties needs to control at least 20% of seats in national parliament to nominate a presidential candidate.
HOW DOES INDONESIA’S ELECTION WORK?Any Indonesian citizen who is 17 or older can vote, but members of the police and military are banned from voting, though their families can.
In this year’s election, about 52% of registered voters are under the age of 40. A third of them are under the age of 30, making the “youth vote” important, and candidates have been making a concerted effort to target them through social media campaigns.
Voters can cast their ballots at over 820,000 polling stations across Indonesia’s three time zones. Polls will open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 1:00 p.m. and will be overseen by about 7 million election officials and independent workers. Indonesians living overseas have been casting votes since Feb. 5 at 3,000 polling stations in many countries or by mail.
Once entering a voting booth, a voter must deal with five ballots at once and choose one of the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential hopefuls, as well as representatives at the national, provincial, regional, regency and city levels, making it the most complex election in the world.
Votes are counted in public at polling stations.
WHY DO THESE ELECTIONS MATTER?Located between the Indian and Pacific oceans, Indonesia is the world’s largest island chain and spans an equivalent distance from New York to London. It is the world’s fourth most populous country, with a rich cultural heritage and diverse natural resources. Nearly 90% of Indonesia’s 277 million people are Muslims, making it the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
Indonesia’s strategic location also gives it geopolitical significance, and as a member of several international organizations, including the United Nations, G20 and ASEAN, it plays a key role in regional and global affairs. Indonesia’s political stability plays a central role in maintaining regional peace and stability.
WHAT IS WIDODO’S ROLE IN THE ELECTION?There is unease in civil society that Widodo wants to retain influence even after leaving office. Activists, students and university lecturers in recent days have expressed concern over democratic standards in Indonesia, citing unethical, corrupt and nepotistic practices and worsening quality of life in the country.
Widodo faces mounting criticism over his lack of neutrality after he threw his support behind frontrunner Subianto, who has picked Widodo’s son as his running mate. Widodo has distanced himself from the governing Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, under whose banner he ran in 2014 and 2019, since the party nominated Ganjar Pranowo and former top security minister in his cabinet, Mohammad Mahfud, as presidential and vice presidential candidates.
WHO IS LIKELY TO WIN THE PRESIDENCY?With three presidential candidates running, the electoral rules require a candidate to win at least 50% of the national vote and at least 20% of the vote in each province to avoid a runoff.
Various polling institutions have forecast that Subianto and his vice presidential candidate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, will likely win the first round. But whether they will get enough votes to win the election outright or be forced into a runoff is still unclear as observers say undecided voters will have a significant impact on results. About one-fifth of Indonesians fell in this category in late December surveys.
The new president will be inaugurated on Oct. 20 and will have to appoint a Cabinet within two weeks.
WHEN ARE RESULTS EXPECTED?The official vote-counting process, which is lengthy and laborious, may take up to 35 days to be completed, the maximum time regulated by the Elections Law.
But the public can expect numerous early vote count results based on sampling, as registered private polling and survey groups will deploy thousands of volunteers and staff to polling stations nationwide.
The early results, widely known as a “quick count,” are considered a reliable indicator of what the official count will show when all votes are tallied in about a month.