As Indonesia goes to the polls, women and minority candidates face challenges

JAKARTA, Indonesia — With a broad smile on his face, Jakarta city council candidate Rian Ernest answers almost every question about his faith with the same line.

“I’m Christian, but my wife and children are Muslims, so pray for me to get the guidance,” Ernest said.

Ernest is one of thousands of candidates facing the contradictions of seeking office as a member of a minority in the world’s third-largest democracy, which is holding national elections on Wednesday.

Elections in the country often reveal a tension between pluralism and the power of conservatives from its Muslim majority.

Nearly 90% of Indonesia’s 277 million people are Muslims. There are just under a million Christians in Jakarta, out of around 10 million people.

Christians like Ernest hold around 14% of seats in the national legislature, while making up just under 9% of the general population, but they face constant questions about their faith. A national quota system has helped more women win office, but fallen short of its own targets. And in this election, a new party is seeking to win representation for marginalized groups like domestic workers and people with disabilities.

Ernest, a lawyer turned politician, is running for a seat in the city legislature in East Jakarta for Golkar, Indonesia’s second largest party. The capital is one of the best places to run as a Christian, he says.

Jakarta elected an ethnic Chinese Christian governor in 2014, but he lost reelection after conservative Muslims accused him of blasphemy, and wound up jailed for it.

After Basuki Tjahaja Purnama accused rivals of misinterpreting the Quran to oppose a Christian governor, hundreds of thousands…