Staff members count the votes after the voting process in a poll station in Jakarta, Indonesia. April 17, 2019. Polls to elect Indonesia's president and parliamentarians closed across the vast archipelagic country on Wednesday. The "quick counts" for preliminary results started at 3:00 p.m. Jakarta time (0800 GMT) and the unofficial results are expected by late Wednesday, while official results will be announced by the election commission in May. (Xinhua/Du Yu)
JAKARTA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Polls to elect Indonesia's president and parliamentarians closed across the vast archipelagic country on Wednesday.
Voters in western parts of the country ended the polling at 1:00 p.m. Jakarta time (0600 GMT).
The country has three time zones with difference of one hour.
The "quick counts" for preliminary results started at 3:00 p.m. Jakarta time (0800 GMT) and the unofficial results are expected by late Wednesday, while official results will be announced by the election commission in May.
Windry Joana, a voter who arrived at a polling station in the country's capital Jakarta on Wednesday to cast her ballot, said she expected improvement in the country's economy.
"I hope the candidates will keep their promises during their campaigns, such as ratcheting off prices. And they should heed on the fate of low income groups," she said.
Around 193 million people are eligible to vote in some 810,000 polling stations across the country to elect their new president and members of the parliament.
However, in the eastern Papua Province voting at 744 polling stations in Abepura and Japsel were put off for one day as ballots and ballot boxes have not arrived, Ocotavianus Injama, chairman of electoral commission in the provincial capital Jayapura, was quoted by local media as saying on Wednesday.
The presidential election pits incumbent President Joko Widodo against Prabowo Subianto, a former commander of Indonesian special forces and chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party.
Widodo, 57, a former furniture businessman who started his political carrier as mayor of Surakarta in Central Java and then as governor of Jakarta, defeated Prabowo in the 2014 polls.
Prabowo, 67, has strong ties with Islamic groups. His father was one of Indonesia's most prominent economists during the era of Indonesia's first President Soekarno and the second President Soeharto.
Widodo cast his ballot at a polling station in Jakarta on Wednesday, stoking upbeat stance in the polls.
"We are always optimistic at works," the president said after casting the ballot.
Prabowo cast his vote at a polling station in Bogor district of West Java province, also expressing his optimism to win the race.
"Optimism, we are optimistic to win 63 percent, that is our calculation," he said after casting the vote.
For legislative polls, over 245,000 candidates backed by 16 national political parties and four local parties are vying for more than 20,000 legislative seats.
