by Mathias Hariyadi

The retired army officer is appealing to the Constitutional Court over alleged fraud during the vote against Joko Widodo. Widodo responds by reaching out, "Stop fighting, let us unite to better Indonesia."

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - The former general Prabowo Subianto, defeated in the July 9 presidential elections, today began the process of appeal to the Constitutional Court against the outcome of the vote that crowned his opponent, Joko Widodo (also known as "Jokowi "), win with 53% of the vote. The appeal aims to demonstrate the alleged errors of the National Electoral Commission, accused of ignoring "thousands" of cases of electoral fraud in favor of the new leader of the country.  

The Red-White Coalition (union of political parties that support Subianto, whose name refers to the national colors of Indonesia) is demanding a new vote in polling stations where Jokowi swept the boards. Analysts and experts believe this a waste of time, since the 6 percentage points that divide the two competitors is too big a margin and demonstrate a clear popular preference. However, one of the closest collaborators of the president-elect said: "We respect the law, and we believe that the Commission did everything correctly. Eitherway, our legal team is preparing to contest the appeal."

If (as is likely) the appeal is turned down, the Red-White Coalition has announced a "significant opposition in Parliament against Jokowi's policies". The group is composed of the Golkar Party, Gerindra Party which is led by Subianto, the Muslim nationalist PPP and the radical Muslim Justice Party. At the moment, until the next parliamentary elections, they can count on 63% of parliamentary seats. Some Golkar sources believe, however, that there may be a "possible" change of sides in favor of the winner.

Meanwhile, the highly popular former governor of Jakarta, has presented his political agenda together with his deputy Jusuf Kalla and has reached out to his opponent: "This is the right time to reunite again our spirit to rebuilt the nation. Let us forget who came first or second and join together to build this nation".  He is now due to meet with outgoing President - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - who will end his ten-year term of office on October 20th: "He called me and congratulated me. He said he was happy to meet to discuss any pending matter s".

 

• indonesia
• presidential
• elections
• fraud
• appeal
• constitutional
• court
• general
• Prabowo
• Subianto