Prabowo leads Indonesia presidential race by a wide margin

Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto was on course to win the country's presidential election by a wide margin, election commission results showed Friday, with 50 percent of votes counted.

The official result is not expected until late March but early indications all point to the 72-year-old ex-general being anointed successor to popular outgoing leader Joko Widodo.

With half the ballots now counted, Prabowo holds a commanding 56.89 percent of votes, more than double his nearest rival and enough for a first-round majority, the election commission's website showed.

Former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan stood at 25.27 percent on Friday morning and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo had 17.84 percent of the vote.

A fiery populist

"Thank God, we must be grateful and continue to monitor the KPU's official results," Prabowo wrote on Instagram late Thursday, referring to the general election commission.

The fiery populist on Wednesday claimed a "victory for all Indonesians" based on preliminary results by government-approved pollsters -- previously shown to be reliable -- that showed he was set for a first-round majority.

But both of his rivals said they would wait for the official result and have not conceded.

Prabowo needs more than 50 percent of the overall vote and at least a fifth of ballots cast in over half the country's 38 provinces to officially secure the presidency. Analysts say his win is almost assured.