Indonesia Roundup: Certified election results, Indonesians in Haiti, Eid homecoming

Certified election results

Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, backed by the president of Indonesia’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, has won 30 out of 32 provinces certified from the February 14 election. Six provinces, namely West Java, Maluku, Papua, Papua Mountains, Central Papua, and Southwest Papua, have not yet finished tallying their votes. The president-elect is expected to secure an outright win with around 58% of the vote, with his biggest win in East Java being over 12 million votes. His smallest victory margin occurred in Jakarta with only about 40,000 votes between him and rival Anies Baswedan, the capital city's governor from 2017 to 2022, Jakarta Globe reported.

Contingency for Indonesians in Haiti

Indonesia has prepared a contingency plan for its citizens in Haiti, including seven Indonesians working as spa therapists in Port-au-Prince, according to Jakarta Globe. The Indonesian embassy in Havana has been assigned to deal with Haiti-related matters, including ensuring the safety of Indonesian nationals amid the unrest. All seven of the individuals were instructed to stay inside their homes by the Indonesian Embassy in Havana on March 4. Indonesian Ambassador Nana Yuliana has laid out strategies for evacuation and job opportunities in other Caribbean countries. “The Indonesian embassy in Havana has prepared a contingency plan in case the situation escalates… They are all safe and sound,” Judha Nugaraha, the director for citizen protection at the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, told the Jakarta Globe. The conflict in Haiti stems from the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 and has led to gang violence in the Caribbean nation.

Eid homecoming

The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation predicts that 71.7% of the country’s population, approximately 193.6 million people will take homecoming exodus trips during the 2024 Eid al-Fitr period. According to the Head of the Transportation Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation, Robby Kurniawan, the figure is based on a survey of 48,107 respondents in 38 provinces of the Southeast Asian country. “This year, our focus is how to anticipate a quite big increase in the number of home-bound travellers that potentially travel compared to those in both 2022 and 2023,” Kurniawan is quoted by state news agency Antara.

Missing Indonesians in South Korea

Indonesia's Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI) has confirmed coordination with the Indonesian Embassy in South Korea to search for missing Indonesian workers who went missing in a fishing boat accident.  Three of the seven Indonesian workers who disappeared on March 9, 2024, when their boat capsized off the southern coast of South Korea, were discovered dead, while the other four remain missing. "There are four missing Indonesian workers remaining, and we hope we could inform this matter to our ambassador in Seoul," BP2MI Chairperson Benny Rhamdani is quoted by the state news agency.

International travellers

Bali Airport served 1,751,427 passengers in February 2024, including 1,002,390 international travellers. The airport accommodated one million international passengers on 5,520 flights, the general manager of the airport, Handy Heryudhitiawan disclosed.  According to Heryudhitiawan, Australian nationals were the most popular, with 96,262 people coming to Bali. Domestic passengers were served through 5,388 flights. The airport has seen an increase in passenger traffic since January, with 3,555,108 passengers served in January-February 2024, Antara News reports.