Indonesian president projected to win re-election

Indonesia held logistically challenging national elections on Wednesday, and unofficial preliminary results show President Joko Widodo on track for a second five-year term. The election was a rematch of the 2014 race, and Widodo, 57, is projected to beat 67-year-old Prabowo Subianto, a former general, by about 10 percentage points, according to "quick count" sampling from five independent polling groups. The "quick counts" have proved accurate in previous elections.

Widodo's projected victory is seen as a win for his relative moderation over Subianto's strident nationalism and fear-based rhetoric about Indonesia being weak and easy prey for China and other foreign powers. Both candidates had courted Indonesia's growing faction of religiously conservative Muslims; Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, but freedom of religious worship is enshrined in its constitution.

By any measure, the election was massive, the first time Indonesia has voted for president, parliament, and regional governments on the same day. The government set up 800,000 polling stations around the countries 17,000 islands so the 193 million eligible voters could cast their ballots for the 245,000 candidates running in various races.

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The final results will be released in May.