Advertisement
Prabowo Subianto suffers setback as constitutional court advised to reject challenge to Joko Widodo’s election win
- Prabowo alleged massive and systematic fraud in the April 17 election and claimed he was in fact the rightful winner
- The Indonesian Election Commission disagreed, saying all candidates were treated ‘fairly, transparently, openly and professionally’
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Indonesia’s elections body on Tuesday defended its “fair and transparent” management of the April 17 presidential polls and insisted defeated candidate Prabowo Subianto’s accusations of fraud were not based on sound evidence.
Advertisement
Ali Nurdin, the lawyer for the Indonesian Elections Commission (KPU), told the Constitutional Court all presidential candidates were treated “fairly, transparently, openly and professionally”.
Nurdin, speaking on the second day of the court’s hearing of Prabowo’s legal challenge, said evidence presented by Prabowo’s legal team did not have a strong legal basis and the court should reject the suit.
“[Prabowo’s] submission of links to news reports as evidence … does not fulfil the conditions of evidence because according to Constitutional Court’s regulations, evidence consists of testimony by witnesses, experts, letters or documents,” Nurdin said.
Following the April 17 election, the KPU declared incumbent President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, the winner with 55.5 per cent of the vote, exceeding Prabowo’s 44.5 per cent.
Advertisement
Prabowo, however, alleged massive and systematic fraud and claimed he was in fact the rightful winner with 52 per cent of the votes, a downward revision of an earlier claim of 62 per cent.
Advertisement