Victorious Jakarta Protesters Send Warning to Indonesia’s Elites
- Protests lead lawmakers to halt controversial election changes
- Changes seen as hurting smaller parties, entrenching elite
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It took little more than 24 hours for Indonesian protesters to end a power grab by the nation’s elite, showing the depth of anger at dynastic politics and democratic backsliding in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.
On Wednesday evening, after lawmakers aligned with President Joko Widodo and President-elect Prabowo Subianto tried to undercut a day-old Constitutional Court ruling on the upcoming regional elections, students, unions and opposition parties acted fast.