| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Prabowo Subianto launches court challenge to Joko Widodo's presidential victory
Sydney Morning Herald - July 23, 2014
As president-elect Joko Widodo returned to work as Jakarta Governor at City Hall on Wednesday, Mr Prabowo's team was forced to clarify he had not pulled out of the election entirely, as he indicated on Tuesday.
They said Mr Prabowo had only withdrawn from the formal counting process and still considered himself a candidate for president. This gave him standing to appeal to the court.
The Indonesian Electoral Commission, KPU, announced late on Tuesday that Mr Joko had won the presidency with a convincing 6.3 percentage point margin.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott joined a rush of foreign leaders to congratulate the president-elect, saying: "The Australian Government is looking forward to working closely with him." Messages also came from Japan, Britain, the US and close neighbours Singapore and Malaysia.
But Mr Prabowo's campaign team recommended foreign leaders hold off. "We would urge other foreign leaders not to, because the process hasn't ended yet," said Mr Prabowo's brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo.
If Mr Joko's election survives Mr Prabowo's challenge, he will begin his five-year term as Indonesia's seventh president on October 20.
Mr Prabowo's campaign had already contested the credibility of previously accurate quick-counts and was now attacking the electoral commission's final count itself.
Mr Prabowo's team said it was its duty to its own voters and to Indonesian democracy itself to take its arguments to the constitutional court. "We're expecting some fairness," said Mr Hashim, adding it would stop challenging "when we get a satisfactory answer".
During the count, the Prabowo team had insisted, unsuccessfully, the KPU order fresh ballots in 5800 Jakarta polling booths and in six provinces in East Java, 52,000 booths altogether with up to 21 million potential voters. Only 13 Jakarta booths were recontested. "Had the KPU... [done what we asked] we would not be this situation; we wouldn't be so angry today," Mr Hashim said.
His team said it had evidence of a number of election violations: more candidates than usual attending individual polling booths, candidates without sufficient identification being allowed to vote, numbers of votes for the Jokowi team increasing without explanation as the vote proceeded through the system and polling booths in Papua that simply never opened.
Indonesian voters were required to dip their fingers in indelible ink after they had voted, but Mr Prabowo's spokesman Tantowi Yahya said, if you dipped your finger in a special solution first and kept it wet, the skin was impervious to the distinctive purple ink. Mr Tantowi said the irregularities constituted "fraud" by the KPU.
"Jokowi and [his running mate] Jusuf Kalla, because they have won, they are no longer concerned," Mr Tantowi said. "But we are fully concerned. We are talking about a clean, transparent and just system."
For the second day in a row, Mr Prabowo's running mate, Hatta Rajasa, made no comment and no public appearances, leading to strong speculation he had split from the Prabowo camp.
But Mr Tantowi said one of Mr Hatta's children had just delivered a grandchild and "he was so busy doing family matters". Asked what Mr Prabowo was up to, Mr Hashim said: "Maybe he's riding his horse."
See also:
 |