On Wednesday morning, 19-year-old Jinggan Ananda’s phone buzzed with snaps from her friends and family. Everyone was sharing the same pictures, of their fingers dipped in purple ink. After months of relentless campaigning in Indonesia, election day had arrived.
Voting in Indonesia is unlike anywhere else; this is the biggest single-day election in the world, with more than 20,000 seats up for grabs, and voting taking place in three time zones across the archipelago of 17,000 islands. Ballot papers are transported by planes, helicopters, speedboats and even ox-drawn carts to ensure the more than 200 million voters get a chance to make their voices heard. Polling stations open between 7am and 1pm in each timezone, with the process starting first in the east of the country.
