Indonesia's Prabowo poised for power, but how will he rule?

The front page of The Jakarta Post at a book store a day after the country's presidential and legislative elections in Jakarta on Feb 15, 2024. - AFP

JAKARTA: Indonesia has seen many faces of Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto over his decades in the public eye - the cheshire grin that accompanies his recent viral dance moves, flashes of his temper in fervent orations and the humiliation when he was dismissed from the military in 1998.

Now, it appears the latest portrait of Prabowo will be the one to be hung in government offices across the country as Indonesia's next president after he took a commanding lead in unofficial results from Wednesday's election and claimed victory.