Major rallies held in Indonesia as election campaign draws to close

Tens of thousands of supporters of Indonesia’s presidential contenders packed final rallies in the capital Jakarta and the Central Java city of Solo on Saturday, as campaigning draws to a close ahead of the world’s biggest single-day election.
Candidates will enter a cooling off period from Sunday to election day on Wednesday, where three contestants are running to succeed the hugely popular President Joko Widodo, who has led Indonesia for a decade and cannot run again.
The contenders to lead the world’s third-largest democracy are popular former governors Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan, and ex-special forces commander Prabowo Subianto, who has soared in opinion polls with the tacit backing of the president, and with the incumbent’s son as his running mate.
At stake is the leadership for the next five years of a mineral-rich Group of 20 economy of 270 million people positioning itself as a future destination for multinational firms in the electric vehicle supply chain.