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Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo both claim victory in Indonesia's presidential poll
Sydney Morning Herald - July 9, 2014
With official counting to take weeks or months, people and politicians rely on usually accurate quick counts to assess the result.
Mr Joko and his political patron, Megawati Sukarnoputri, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, came out early, saying they were confident of victory less than two hours after polling booths closed. But about an hour later, Mr Prabowo also, more equivocally, claimed victory.
Worryingly for those who hoped the election might produce a clear result and a peaceful process, both men asked their supporters to "guard" the counting process. Mr Joko urged his supporters to watch the integrity of the official count by the Election Commission against possible corruption.
"We are all grateful that based on the counting of quick counts, Jokowi-JK has won," he said to a packed room of supporters.
"I think now it's time for us to guard the counting, from the lowest level to the highest, so that it's clean and honest and there's no intervention. We ask for the people of Indonesia to guard the purity of the people's aspiration, and so that nobody can try to stain what people have voted for."
Mr Prabowo, who sounded hoarse at his public appearance, said: "We are grateful that from all the incoming data, we... received the support and mandate of the people. But we will wait until all the data comes in and, after 90 per cent of the data comes in, we will declare our position.
"We ask all members of the coalition parties, the red and white coalition, to guard this victory until the KPU announces the official result."
Local reports last week suggested Mr Prabowo has trained more than 1000 paid scrutineers at his ranch near Jakarta and deployed them around Indonesia for polling day.
Two of Indonesia's most credible polling organisations, CSIS and LSI showed the man universally known as Jokowi was ahead. LSI's quick count showed Mr Joko and running mate Jusuf Kalla with 53.38 per cent of the vote against opponent Mr Prabowo and Hatta Rajasa with 46.62 per cent. CSIS had Mr Joko up 52.2 per cent to 47.8 per cent.
But other, lesser-known polls featured on the pro-Prabowo TV broadcaster owned by his coalition partner, Aburizal Bakrie, showed Mr Prabowo in the lead with 52 to 48 per cent.
Australian National University researcher Ed Aspinall said: "All the reputable polling agencies" showed "quite a decisive Jokowi victory". The ones being quoted by Mr Prabowo "are from rather disreputable outfits with a history of inflating the vote for that candidate".
He said it was a "major concern" that the Prabowo camp would now seek to manipulate the official count to make it match the count of his pollsters.
There was little doubt in Mr Joko's camp about the victory. His mother Sujiatmi Notomiharjo came on shortly after he spoke, saying in the Javanese language, "Do your duties wisely, now that you've become president, son".
Ms Megawati, who was herself appointed president by parliament in 2002, but subsequently lost two elections to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said that, based on the quick counts, "it can be declared that the president for 2014 to 2019 will be Joko Widodo".
On the streets of Jakarta earlier in the day, voters said they had picked either Mr Prabowo for his toughness, or Mr Joko as the man of the people.
"Jokowi is for the people, a leader who is born from the people and he's for the people," said Hery Wijaya, sitting with friends in inner-city Glodok.
"I voted for Prabowo because I know Prabowo follows Suharto," said Tanah Abang market stall holder Eti. "He's firm, he's military. I want Indonesia to revive, be spirited, not just lame, so I want a firm leader, not a lame one."
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