Indonesian capital's next governor decided in April run-off

The election for the new governor of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, will be decided in a run-off vote on April 19, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported the country's election authorities as saying last week.

In the first round held on Feb 15, incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama held a narrow lead of about 43 per cent while former Minister of Education and Culture Anies Baswedan came second with 40 per cent.

According to the Head of Jakarta Election Commission Sumarno, a run-off will be held between these two because no candidate reached more than 50 per cent of votes.

More than 7.1 million Indonesians voted at some 13,000 polling stations in the first round of the election.

Purnama, the city's first non-Muslim governor for half a century and its first ethnic Chinese, has been on trial for comments he made about the Quran that was deemed insulting to Islam and Muslims, triggering widespread public protests since October last year.

The vote is seen as a test of whether pluralism and a tolerant brand of Islam in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country are being eroded. --Bernama