Indonesia election: How Prabowo's big night unfolded

JAKARTA -- Indonesians cast their ballots Wednesday to choose the successor to Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in the world's largest direct presidential vote.

Pre-election opinion surveys showed Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, 72, was leading the contest over his two rivals, former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan, 54, and former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo, 55. The predictions held up on election night, as Prabowo raced into a commanding lead in unofficial quick counts.

Be sure to check out the rest of our election coverage, including these highlights:

Prabowo claims victory in Indonesian election based on unofficial counts

Indonesia set to elect next president: 5 things to know

Jokowi faces backlash over support for Prabowo's presidential bid

Indonesia's new capital hinges on election as Jokowi set to exit

Indonesian election highlights young voters' employment concerns

Here's how the election unfolded (Jakarta time):

Thursday, Feb. 15

3:00 p.m. Here's one more look at the unofficial results from major pollsters as we close this timeline-style report. Nikkei Asia will continue to cover the aftermath of the election. For more on Prabowo, read this profile we published earlier. Stay with us for all our Indonesia election coverage.

12:00 p.m. The official tally from the General Elections Commission shows Prabowo leading with 56.4% of the vote, followed by Anies at 24.6% and Ganjar at 19%. The figures represent results from 42% of the more than 820,000 total polling stations.

11:30 p.m. Indonesia's Elections Supervisory Body, Bawaslu, reports cases where voters and officials at around 3,700 polling stations were intimidated to vote or work in favor of certain candidates. It does not say which candidates benefited. There were over