JAKARTA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Despite heavy rain in early Wednesday morning, a private garage-turned polling station in Mustika Jaya regency, Bekasi city of Indonesia's West Java province saw a flood of voters participating the country's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Minutes before the voting officially started at 7 a.m. local time, many voters had already lined up, waiting to cast their ballots.
To attract more voters, the polling station provided a photobooth for voters to take selfies and a coffee corner offering free coffee, tea and snacks.
Adi Ariyanto, the head of committee of the polling station, said that he and his team prepared the photobooth and coffee corner to "facilitate the voters to express their happiness in this electoral celebration."
"Election moments like this should be a happy time, not a moment to spread hatred. We may vote for different candidates, but we all should be equally happy," Ariyanto told Xinhua.
He said that some who were not registered on his station also came just to take photos.
26-year-old Shofura Nabila was one of the 250 voters registered to vote at that polling station, and among the total of 204 million Indonesian voters across the country's 98 cities and 416 regencies. She expressed enthusiasm in taking part in the electoral event by showing her inked finger, marking that she had voted.
"I am really excited because this year's election is special. We have three presidential candidates who will replace the previous leaders. I really encourage all young generations to cast the ballots," Nabila told Xinhua after taking selfies with her two friends at the photo booth.
Voters aged between 20 and 35 in Indonesia dominated almost 60 percent of the total registered voters, or around 114 million.
In Wednesday's election, voters did not only choose for the next president and vice president, but also the councilors and parliament members in national and local levels. They were required to cast five ballots at one time.
For Sukimah, an 84-year-old resident of Tangerang city in Banten province, casting five ballots at one time was not easy, but nothing could stop her enthusiasm.
"My vote matters. I hope whoever wins the presidential race can bring Indonesia a more prosperous future," she said as she was helped by an election committee member to cast her vote.
Enny Nuraeni, 51, told Xinhua from a polling station in Central Jakarta that she "voted for a change". She hoped the elected leader could bring changes of policies to be more inclusive for the people, particularly for middle and lower-class citizens.
For presidential race, Indonesia is witnessing a tight race among frontrunner Prabowo Subianto who currently serves as the defence minister, former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo.
They competed to succeed President Joko Widodo who will leave office in October and cannot run again because he has already been in power for two periods, or 10 years, a maximum length of time a person can be president in Indonesia.
Apart from presidential candidates, as many as 9,917 legislative candidates were also contesting for the 580 seats in the national parliament.
The voting closed at 1 p.m. local time and the vote counts started right after. The Indonesia's National Election Commission (KPU) is scheduled to announce the official results by March 20 at the latest. ■
