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full screen A woman casts her vote in a polling station in Jakarta on Wednesday. An official election result is not expected until March. Photo: Vincent Thian/AP/TT
Indonesia, the world’s third largest democracy went to the polls on Wednesday to choose a new president.
Polling stations opened at seven in the morning in each of the country’s three time zones, which includes 17,000 islands inhabited by 270 million people.
In addition to the president, around 20,000 national, regional and local legislators are also to be elected. For the 580 seats in the national parliament alone, there are 10,000 candidates from 18 different parties.
The last polling stations, out of a total of around 800,000, close at 7 o’clock on Wednesday morning Swedish time.
An official election result is not expected until March, but so-called “quick counts” are expected to give a reliable indication of who won later on Wednesday.