A quick count of sample polling results of the presidential elections in Indonesia indicated that the team made up of incumbent president Joko Widodo and cleric Ma’ruf Amin had defeated opponents Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno. A closer look at the quick count results showed that Jokowi’s victory occurred because of his sweep of the areas with syncretic Muslims and those with significant Christian or Hindu minorities, while Prabowo enjoyed larger margins in areas with devout modernist Muslims, RSIS Distinguished Fellow Barry Desker pointed out in a commentary.

…Barry Desker is Distinguished Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. He was Singapore’s Ambassador to Indonesia from 1986 to 1993.