YOUNG, ENDURING SUPPORTERS That support base, at odds with powerful army generals, has been grappling with a military-backed crackdown. The party alleges the crackdown gathered pace ahead of Thursday’s vote as the military sought to keep it out of the race, a charge the army denies. Some analysts and votersContinue Reading
CHALLENGES FOR COALITION “A timely announcement of the results, leading to a smooth formation of a new government, will reduce policy and political uncertainty,” Moody’s Investors Service said. “This is crucial for the country that is facing very challenging macroeconomic conditions.” The delay in the announcement of results was unusualContinue Reading
CHALLENGES FOR COALITION “A timely announcement of the results, leading to a smooth formation of a new government, will reduce policy and political uncertainty,” Moody’s Investors Service said. “This is crucial for the country that is facing very challenging macroeconomic conditions.” The delay in the announcement of results was unusual for Pakistan.Continue Reading
PARIS: Two broken fingers in a rugby match changed everything for Seiji Ozawa, the celebrated Japanese conductor who blazed a trail in classical music, connecting Eastern traditions with the West. Public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media reported on Friday (Feb 9) that Ozawa had died of heart failure atContinue Reading
ISLAMABAD: Independents backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan won the most seats in Pakistan’s election on Friday (Feb 9) after results from over half the constituencies were announced, leaving political parties trailing. Almost 24 hours have passed since the close of polls and the results have been unusuallyContinue Reading
The nickel boom comes on the back of President Joko Widodo’s resource nationalism push.
Indonesia has the world’s biggest reserves of nickel but exports of the metal were banned in 2020 to capture more of their value.
The so-called “commodity downstreaming”, where natural commodities are processed onshore, is a bid to establish more domestic smelters and produce more nickel products instead of just exporting raw nickel.
Nickel is used in the making of stainless steel or batteries.
Outgoing shipments of nickel products hit US$30 billion in 2022, more than 10 times what they were in 2013, boosted by demand for batteries used in electronic vehicles (EVs).
The last decade saw numerous structural reforms and changes that improved the Indonesian economy, said Ms Pranjul Bhandari, chief economist of India and Indonesia at HSBC.
In addition to the nickel policy, Mr Jokowi’s onimbus law that aimed to attract investments and create jobs, as well as mega infrastructure projects, could become part of his legacy.
Nusantara, the nation’s planned new capital in East Kalimantan, also attracted more than US$2.6 billion worth of investment last year.
Ms Bhandari said manifestos from the main parties contesting in the election look set to continue with the current administration’s economic policies.
“Almost all the presidential hopefuls are supportive of the downstreaming strategy. Many other laws, for example the omnibus law, has now been enshrined so those benefits will continue to see the light of the day,” she said.
SHANGHAI: Young Chinese flocking home for Lunar New Year this weekend have turned to an AI chatbot game to help train for the most dreaded social interaction of the year – the dinner table interrogation by nosy relatives. The annual inquisition as extended families gather for China’s biggest festival isContinue Reading
JAKARTA: Indonesia holds its presidential election on Wednesday (Feb 14) but candidates are looking to another country’s export to win votes – K-pop, the South Korean sensation that has swept much of the world. At an event held by young volunteers for candidate Anies Baswedan in the capital Jakarta, die-hardContinue Reading
BANGKOK: Thai police said on Friday (Feb 9) they have charged a Canadian who tried to open the door of an aircraft as it was waiting to take off claiming someone was trying to kill him. The 40-year-old attempted to open the emergency exit on a Thai Airways flight toContinue Reading
With a vote count underway, candidates backed by jailed cricket star Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have emerged as a challenge to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been widely regarded as the man to beat.
The independent candidates’ popularity is not unexpected, analysts told CNA on Friday (Feb 9).
It was projected that if electoral turnout was healthy, these candidates might pull off a surprise victory, said Associate Professor Mariam Mufti from the Department of Political Science at University of Waterloo in Canada.
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar said that turnout was high among the about 128 million registered voters.
As of Friday afternoon, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced results for 15 of the 265 contested seats in parliament, according to Al Jazeera’s live blog, showing close competition between PTI and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
The high voter turnout shows that PTI has been the most popular political party in the run-up to the election and that citizens went out to show their allegiance, said Dr Mufti.
“The electorate in Pakistan has generally been so disheartened by the allegations of corruption, by the fact that this election was being referred to as a selection instead of an election where the military had already predetermined the winner, that I think voters have come out to show that they had a choice and that they were going exercise their choice,” she told CNA’s Asia First.
Observers believe the nation’s powerful military is backing Sharif. The military has denied such allegations, and says it remains apolitical.
Dr Amit Ranjan, research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asia Studies, noted that even before the election was announced, there were reports that PTI was going to do well.
This is despite the commission in December stripping PTI of the iconic bat symbol on technical grounds that the party had not held internal elections, a prerequisite for any political party to take part in national polls.
PTI candidates contested using individual symbols.