PRABOWO RECEIVES CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES FROM ASIAN LEADERS, TOP US OFFICIALS

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Bernama) -- After Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim became the first leader to congratulate Prabowo Subianto, who was announced as the official winner of the Indonesian Presidential Election (Pilpres) 2024, Chinese President Xi Jinping also extended his congratulations.

Prabowo was congratulated by Xi on his election as the president of Indonesia on Wednesday, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Indonesia’s  General Elections Commission (KPU) officially announced Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka team as the winner of the 2024 presidential and vice-presidential election (Pilpres) on Wednesday night. 

Based on the vote count in 38 regions of Indonesia and 128 overseas polling centres, Prabowo-Gibran garnered 58.6 per cent or 96,214,691 votes out of 164,227,475 votes, according to KPU's announcement.

The US government has also extended its congratulations to the newly elected president. State Secretary Anthony Blinken, in his tweet on the X platform, said:

“We look forward to partnering closely with the president-elect and his administration when they take office in October.” 

His message was echoed by White House National Security Adviser  Jake Sullivan.

“As the world’s second-and third-largest democracies, we look forward to continued cooperation in support of ASEAN and a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he said, on the X platform. 

In Tokyo, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on its X account said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sent Prabowo a congratulatory letter on Wednesday following the KPU announcement. 

 “In this letter, Prime Minister Kishida extended his congratulations to President-elect Prabowo and conveyed his intention to work together on bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas as well as regional and global issues, touching on the bilateral relationship that was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership last year when the two countries celebrated 65th anniversary of their diplomatic relations,” MOFA Japan said. 

Meanwhile,  ANTARA news agency reported that the Indonesian rupiah strengthened against the US dollar on Thursday morning following the results of the 2024 General Election (Pemilu), including the elected president and vice president.

According to the report at the opening of trading, the rupiah rose by 55 points or 0.35 per cent to Rp15,668 per US$ from its previous level of Rp15,723.

'From the domestic side, it is closely related to the final results of the KPU which declared the Prabowo-Gibran pair as the winners,' said Finex analyst Brahmantya Himawan to ANTARA in Jakarta, on Thursday.

The 'Festival of Democracy' in the world's third-largest democracy on February 14 was held to determine the successor to President Joko Widodo, more commonly known as Jokowi, who concluded his second and final term in October.

-- BERNAMA