The General Elections Commission announced that Joko, with 53 percent of the vote, had beaten Prabowo, with 47 percent. Nearly 135 million Indonesians cast ballots in the emotionally charged July 9 election, in which voters chose a new president for the first time in 10 years.

But the announcement, while widely expected, did not end a simmering controversy, as his opponent, Prabowo Subianto, a retired army general, rejected the results as fraudulent and threatened to withdraw from the race.

Joko is to be sworn in October 20. He has pledged to bring more “people-centric” governance and policies to Indonesia, which despite being a member of the G-20 group of major economies has more than 100 million people living on $2 a day or less.

The victory represents a striking rise for Joko, 53, who was born and raised in a riverside slum area in the city of Surakarta, also known as Solo, in Central Java Province. He grew up to be a carpenter and later a furniture exporter before entering politics in 2005, where he was twice elected mayor of his hometown, then governor of Jakarta in 2012.

Joko, a thin, unassuming figure with what he has described as a typical “village face,” will be Indonesia’s seventh president and the first not to have emerged from the country’s political elite or to have been an army general.

Homily hint: How refreshing to hear of a leader who arises from poverty and brings hope to the many who remain trapped in its clutches. Our own leaders, regardless of economic background, also carry a great responsibility for those with the least. It is in them that we find Jesus.

Source: An article by Joe Cochrane for The New York Times