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From banned general to dancing grandpa: how Prabowo became favourite to lead Indonesia

Support from popular president Joko Widodo has lifted the 72-year-old once barred from the US over human rights concerns

Tens of thousands of young Indonesians screamed with joy as presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto entered a packed stadium in the capital Jakarta for a final campaign rally on Saturday.

They screamed even louder when the former commander of the country’s feared special forces blew air kisses and danced on stage. Within minutes, Prabowo’s moves were posted all over social media with hashtags such as “gemoy” — cute in Bahasa Indonesian.   

The reaction illustrates the remarkable transformation of the fiery former general, who was discharged from the Indonesian military for the alleged abduction of democracy activists and shunned by the US for two decades, but is now the favourite to lead the world’s third-most populous democracy. 

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