‘Legally groundless’: Indonesian court throws out Prabowo Subianto’s election-rigging claims

Indonesia’s defeated presidential election challenger on Thursday lost a bid to overturn his loss to incumbent President Joko Widodo over claims that the 2019 presidential race was rigged against him – allegations that sparked deadly rioting in Jakarta.

The country’s constitutional court threw out the case lodged by ex-general Prabowo Subianto, saying he did not prove that he lost the April vote because of widespread cheating and voter fraud.

“The plaintiff’s case is legally groundless,” said chief justice Anwar Usman in the course of ahearing that stretched over nine hours. “We reject [his] demand in its entirety.”

The court earlier said it found no “convincing” evidence to prove Indonesia’s police and military had acted in favour of Widodo and his running mate, as judges on Thursday began reading a 5,000-page ruling on the case.

Jokowi had earlier asked the police and military to explain the government’s programmes to citizens, a move the court deemed an “appropriate” one for the country’s leader and head of the government to make.

“The Court finds that there is no evidence to show that the state apparatus has not been neutral,” Judge Aswanto said. “The President’s request [to explain government’s programme] is appropriate … there was no attempt to ask people to vote for a specific candidate.”

The court, which also questioned the quality of the evidence and the credibility of witnesses, on Thursday also rejected several other claims made by Prabowo’s camp, such as phantom polling booths being used in the April presidential election.

“The claim of the existence of 2,984 phantom polling booth with 895,200 voters has been rejected by the Election Commission … as [this claim] was not accompanied by the location of the said polling stations,” Judge Saldi Isra said.

“The applicant was not able to show [structured, systematic and massive electoral] violations by the civil service apparatus and district heads,” said Judge Wahiduddin Adams.

Widodo called for the country to unite after the Constitutional Court upheld his election victory.

“I urge all Indonesians to reunite to advance the country,” he told reporters on Thursday at the Halim Perdana Kusuma airport before departing to for the G20 summit in Japan.

“Ma-aruf Amin and I promise to be the president and vice-president for all Indonesians without any exceptions,” said Jokowi.

“The people have spoken, the people have made their wishes known. The voice of the people has been heard,” said Widodo, thanking all his supporters, volunteers and political parties in his coalition.

Prabowo said he accepted the results of the court.

“We accept the decision of the Constitutional Court,” he told reporters from his residence.

Outside the court building and throughout the capital, some 47,000 soldiers and police officers were deployed amid fears unrest, but there was little sign of violent demonstrations.

Thousands of protesters from 14 different groups, including the extremist Islamic Defender Front (FPI), had rallied outside the court, with some holding up posters which read “Give the freedom of expression to the people” and “Robbing the voice of the people is betraying the sovereignty of the people which is truly treasonous”.

Police estimated the crowd size to be about 2,500 to 3,000.

Prabowo supporter Daeng Wahidin was among a few thousand people gathered outside the court for the verdict, but police barricades prevented them getting near the building.

“The state can make its decision, but I won’t accept Jokowi as president,” said Daeng, 45. “I think he was elected through a fraudulent system.”

The head of the FPI earlier on Thursday told the masses to be prepared to wage holy war if Widodo triumphed in court.

“If [Jokowi] wins, we must continue our fight. Prepare yourself for a long jihad … a long constitutional jihad,” Sobri Lubis was quoted as saying by the local press. “We reject all forms of cheating and injustice always.”

Last month, peaceful protests against the official result by Subianto supporters erupted into two nights of street battles between police and rioters, leaving nine people dead and hundreds injured in the capital’s worst violence in years.

Indonesian police have been in the spotlight after videos surfaced that appeared to show officers beating protesters.

There are also questions about how the demonstrators – including a 15-year-old high school student – died.

Is Indonesian democracy doomed to repeat a cycle of violence?

This week, Amnesty International called for an independent probe into what it called “grave human rights violations” by police against protesters – including beatings and “torture” – and allegations that they were behind the killings of demonstrators.

Some of the dead were reported to have gunshot wounds. Police have insisted they did not shoot live rounds, but instead used rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas to push back the crowds.

Meanwhile, several Prabowo allies have recently been arrested, including former army general Kivlan Zen over his alleged links to the Jakarta riots.

Police have also aired video from several arrested suspects who claimed that Zen masterminded a failed plot to sow chaos by killing four senior government officials, including its chief security minister and the president’s top intelligence adviser.

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