1Berita News – President of the Philippines Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos extends congratulations to presidential candidate number 02, Prabowo Subianto, who leads in the preliminary results of the vote count in the 2024 Presidential Election.

“My warmest congratulations to Defense Minister @prabowo who leads in the final vote count for the next President of Indonesia,” Bongbong wrote on his X account (formerly Twitter).

In his post, Bongbong also expresses his hopes regarding the future bilateral relationship between the Philippines and Indonesia.

“I hope to deepen the bilateral relationship between the Philippines and Indonesia, close neighbors and partners in ASEAN,” he added.

This year, he noted, Indonesia and the Philippines will celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations.

Previously, political analyst from the University of the Philippines, Richard Heydarian, compared Prabowo’s campaign on TikTok with President Bongbong. The analyst stated that Indonesia would choose the Filipino-style democracy.

“Where misinformation and powerful individuals can appear ‘funny’ with sweet actions, where human rights are ignored, where both new and old dynasties dominate the entire political system,” Heydarian said.

The “funny” powerful individuals refer to Prabowo, who during the campaign often danced. This action even earned him the nickname gemoy or adorable.

So far, congratulations have been extended by several world leaders for Prabowo’s lead in the preliminary results of quick counts from various survey agencies and the real count from the General Election Commission (KPU).

Among them are Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.