On the morning of October 20, local time, Prabowo Subianto was sworn in as Indonesia’s newly-elected president, marking the start of his term as the country’s eighth president.
At the ceremony held in Jakarta, Prabowo, 73, a former military officer and commander of the Indonesian special forces, took the oath of office. He has a long history in politics, having founded the Great Indonesia Movement Party in 2008. Although he ran for vice president the following year and lost, he made two attempts for the presidency in 2014 and 2019, both times falling short against incumbent Joko Widodo.
Notably, Prabowo served as Indonesia’s Minister of Defense in Joko Widodo’s cabinet after the 2019 election. In the February 2024 election, he partnered with Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the mayor of Solo and son of Joko, securing approximately 96 million votes and winning the presidency by a landslide.
