The Indonesian Defense Minister leads by a large margin in the presidential elections

Indonesia's Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto leads the country's presidential election with 59.72% of the vote, according to the so-called "quick count" conducted by the Indikator Center for Social Studies.

Voting in the presidential, legislative and local elections, which Indonesia witnessed simultaneously today, Wednesday, concluded at one o'clock in the afternoon local time (six a.m. GMT), after six hours of voting.

Official numbers are expected later today, and it could take several weeks for all the votes to be counted.

According to the Indikator Center, the “quick count”, which is conducted on the basis of a sample of some polling stations, showed that Prabowo Subianto’s competitors, former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and former Central Java Governor Gengar Pranowo, obtained 23.38% and 16.9% of the votes, respectively. .

Calculations conducted by other polling centers show similar results, with the Charta Politika Center estimating the number of votes won by Prabowo Subianto at 57.7%, the Litbang Kompas Center at 60%, and the Populi Center at 61%.

In 2019, the “quick count” results were consistent with data later published by the country’s General Election Commission.

If he obtains more than 50% of the votes at the national level and more than 20% of the votes in more than half of Indonesia's provinces in the official count, Prabowo Subianto will achieve victory in the first round.

 

Seoul: Hackers infiltrate the personal email of a presidential employee

South Korean President Yeon Suk-yul's office announced that supposed North Korean hackers had hacked into the emails of a presidential employee, ahead of Yeon's European tour last November.

The office said on Wednesday that the electronic attack only affected the personal account of the employee, who violated security protocols by partially using personal email services in his official duties.

Officials did not specify what type of information was stolen from the employee's personal emails, but they confirmed that overall the office's security system was "unaffected."

"We discovered this before Yoon's European tour and took the necessary measures," Yoon's office said in a statement to reporters.

He added that he is monitoring and responding to any "continued hacking attempts" linked to North Korea, but the matter "does not mean that the security system of the presidential office has been hacked."

President Yoon visited Britain last November for three days, where he met with King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, then headed to France.

North Korea runs a massive government-backed hacking program and has been accused of stealing large sums of money, mostly cryptocurrencies, to fund its nuclear weapons and missile program, in defiance of international sanctions.

Alleged hackers - backed by North Korea - have also been accused of stealing information from governments, companies and research institutions.

A report was issued last week by a United Nations committee of experts, which stated that an investigation was underway into 58 cyberattacks suspected of being behind North Korea between 2017 and 2023, in which approximately $3 billion were stolen.

This money is used to help finance Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.