Jakarta. A British diplomat on Thursday praised Indonesia’s elections as an “epic festival of democracy”.

Indonesia held the world’s largest single-day election on Wednesday. Hundreds of millions of people selected President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s successor that day, along with provincial and national lawmakers. 

“Congratulations to the people of Indonesia for yesterday’s huge demonstration of their democratic rights, and to the hundreds of thousands of candidates on their campaigns all across the archipelago,” UK Ambassador to Indonesia Dominic Jermey posted on his official X account on Thursday.

“A truly epic festival of democracy #pemilu2024,” Jermey added, referring to the Indonesian word for “election”.

Jermey, however, did not comment on the preliminary results that put Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto in the lead. Prabowo was competing against two former governors, Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan.

Both the UK and Indonesia are members of the G20 economies. 

The UK is among the countries that have committed to providing the $20 billion climate financing Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) for Indonesia.

As part of the JETP, a coalition of rich countries under the International Partners Group (IPG) pledged to give Indonesia $10 billion of public money. Co-led by the US and Japan, the IPG encompasses Canada, Denmark, the European Union (EU), France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and the UK.

The other half of the money comes from financial institutions that are part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (Gfanz). The JETP funding encompasses grants, concessional loans, market-rate loans, guarantees, and private investment.