SINGAPORE – Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong congratulated Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Feb 15 after the “smooth and successful” conduct of elections in South-east Asia’s most populous nation the previous day.

Indonesia held both its presidential and legislative elections on Feb 14, with the number of registered voters at 205 million.

In a statement on Feb 15, the Prime Minister’s press secretary Chang Li Lin said the two South-east Asian leaders had strengthened the close ties between the countries during their tenures by resolving longstanding bilateral issues.

Three of them were addressed during the Singapore-Indonesia Leaders’ Retreat on Jan 25, 2022, in Bintan – the fifth time they had come together for such a meeting.

At the retreat, they witnessed the signing and exchange of three agreements, as well as an exchange of letters undertaking to bring them into force at the same time.

These comprised a flight information region agreement, a defence cooperation agreement and an extradition treaty.

She added that the leaders also paved the way forward in new frontiers of cooperation, namely, sustainability, the digital economy and human capital development.

Besides calling Mr Widodo, PM Lee also called Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, who was one of the three candidates to contest Indonesia’s presidential election on Feb 14.

Ms Chang said PM Lee congratulated Mr Prabowo for his strong showing in the election.

Both of them also discussed the excellent state of bilateral relations, and agreed on the importance of identifying new and mutually beneficial areas of cooperation.

Mr Prabowo and his running mate, Mr Gibran Rakabuming Raka, have claimed victory in the first round of the presidential election.

Based on unofficial quick counts of sample votes, several pollsters showed him with nearly 60 per cent of the vote – a necessity to capture the presidency without the country having to go to an electoral run-off.

Presidential candidates must win more than 50 per cent of the country’s vote, and get at least 20 per cent of the vote in half of Indonesia’s 38 provinces to prevent a run-off election between the top two candidates.

Quick counts, which are based on a sampling of votes at polling stations, are considered fairly accurate in projecting the winning margins during elections.

Official results are slated to be released by Indonesia’s General Elections Commission by March 20, and are not expected to differ significantly.