Jakarta, Feb. 14 -- Indonesian authorities were counting votes cast on Wednesday in the world's biggest single-day election, headlined by the race to succeed President Joko Widodo, whose influence could determine who takes the country's helm.

The race to replace Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, pits two former governors, Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan, against controversial frontrunner Prabowo Subianto, the defence minister and a former special forces commander feared in the 1990s as a top lieutenant of Indonesia's late strongman ruler Suharto.

Initial indications of the result are expected to emerge later on Wednesday, based on independent pollsters' 'quick counts' of publicly counted votes from a sampling of stations across the c...