This past Monday, October 20th, I celebrated with tens of thousands of Indonesians in Jakarta to welcome their 7th President, Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, as he’s affectionately called. Jokowi is the first directly-elected Indonesian president who is not tied to the political or military elite dated back to the Suharto era. He rose to success from poor family background by building a furniture export business in his hometown Solo. He had to borrow money (just like a Kiva borrower!) to start his business and failed several times before he found success. He later became the Mayor of Solo in 2005 and... Continue Reading >>
Stories tagged with Election
Mar 3, 2013
Kenya
On March 4th, 2013 over 12.3 million Kenyans headed to the polls to elect their next parliamentarians, senators, governors and their fourth president since independence 50 years ago. In the weeks prior to the big day, Kenyans urged one another to become registered voters, consequently breaking all of its election records to date. Over 14.3 million people registered to vote, 86.1% of which turned out on election day. Many voters woke up before dawn, queuing as early as 1:00 am, and waited more than 10 hours to cast their ballots.
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