JAKARTA, Indonesia (news agencies) — Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto was announced the winner of last month’s presidential election Wednesday over two former governors who have vowed to contest the result in court over alleged irregularities.
Subianto, who has links to the past dictatorship and chose the son of the popular outgoing president as his running mate, won 58.6% of the votes in the world’s third largest democracy. Former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan received 24.9% and former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo got 16.5%, the General Election Commission said. It posted polling stations’ tabulation forms on its website, allowing for independent verification.
Nearly 5,000 police officers were on alert in Jakarta, the capital, anticipating protests from the losing candidates’ supporters. The election commission’s headquarters were barricaded with razor wire.
About 300 demonstrators held banners and signs criticizing outgoing President Joko Widodo for supporting Subianto and alleging widespread fraud. They burned rubbish near the election commission compound, along with photos of the president.
In Indonesia, election challenges can be registered with the Constitutional Court during the three days following the announcement of official results. Baswedan and Pranowo have refused to concede and said they plan to file challenges.
The two other candidates have alleged fraud in the election process, citing the vice presidential candidacy of Widodo’s son. Widodo is serving his second term and could not run again, but his son’s candidacy has been seen as a sign of his tacit backing of Subianto.
Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is 37 but became Subianto’s running mate after the Constitutional Court made an exception to the minimum age requirement of 40 for candidates. The court’s chief justice, who is Widodo’s brother-in-law, was then removed by an ethics panel for failing to recuse himself and for making last-minute changes to election candidacy requirements.
The new president will be inaugurated on Oct. 20 and will have to appoint a Cabinet within two weeks.
Subianto had claimed victory on election day after unofficial tallies showed he was winning nearly 60% of the votes.
Voter turnout for the Feb. 14 election was about 80%, the election commission said.
Subianto won in 36 of 38 provinces and received 96.2 million votes compared to 40.9 million for Baswedan, the second-place finisher, who won in two provinces. Baswedan, the former head of an Islamic university, won a massive majority in the conservative westernmost province of Aceh.
Pranowo, the candidate of the governing Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, received 27 million votes and did not win any provinces.
Todung Mulya Lubis, a prominent lawyer who represents Pranowo, asserted that election irregularities occurred before, during and after the polls.
Widodo has dismissed the fraud allegations, saying the election process was watched by many people including representatives of the candidates, the election supervisory agency and security personnel.
“Layered supervision like this would eliminate possible fraud,” Widodo told reporters last month. “Don’t scream fraud. We have mechanisms to solve the fraud. If you have evidence, take it to the Election Supervisory Agency. If you have evidence, challenge it to the Constitutional Court.”
The campaign teams of Baswedan and Pranowo said they would provide evidence for their claims.
But Lubis said his team has had difficulty getting witnesses to testify in court due to alleged intimidation by authorities. He acknowledged that successfully challenging the election result with such a wide official margin of victory will be difficult.
The ethics panel that removed Anwar Usman as the court’s chief justice allowed him to remain on the court under certain conditions, including banning him from involvement when the court adjudicates election disputes this year.
That means any such cases brought to the court would be decided by eight justices instead of all nine members.
Subianto’s campaign highlighted the Widodo administration’s progress in reducing poverty and vowed to continue the modernization agenda that has brought rapid growth and vaulted Indonesia into the ranks of middle-income countries.
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