DENPASAR, Indonesia (Reuters) – Heart-shaped balloons, chocolate and pink candy welcomed voters to a polling station in the city of Denpasar on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali during the presidential election on Wednesday, Valentine’s Day.
Voters were greeted at the 026 Tunjungsari Polling Station by women dressed in pink traditional clothing, handing out chocolates instead of how-to-vote cards.
Once ballots were cast, voters were thanked with candy.
“It makes voting fun because I can vote while celebrating Valentine’s,” said first-time voter Ni Komang Intant Yuliani.
Indonesia’s election, with more than 200 million of the 270 million population eligible to vote, is the world’s biggest single-day election. Nearly 259,000 candidates are contesting 20,600 posts.
“We’ve exercised our voting rights and we’ve voted as a form of loving our state representatives,” said Agus Supraptha, who was surprised to receive the confectionery on Valentine’s Day.
The election will decide who succeeds popular President Joko Widodo to run the world’s third-largest democracy and world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, a 72-year-old former special forces commander making a third attempt at the presidency, is favourite according to opinion polls.
(Reporting by Sultan Anshori, Zahra Matarani; Writing by Michael Perry; editing by Miral Fahmy)
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