Indonesia's Anies plans to contest presidential poll result in top court

JAKARTA — Indonesian presidential candidate Anies Baswedan plans to file a case at the country's Constitutional Court contesting the results of last month's election, he told reporters on Wednesday (March 13).

Unofficial results show Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, who had the influential backing of incumbent President Joko Widodo's, won the Feb 14 poll with nearly 60 per cent of votes. The national election commission is expected to announce the official results by March 20.

Anies said he plans to file a case to the Constitutional Court (MK) after the official results are announced next week, but declined to provide further details.

"We plan to file to the MK for sure but the content is not something that we can disclose," he said.

The former governor and education minister criticised what he said was a lack of state neutrality.

"When we are talking about free and fair elections this also means that the state takes a neutral position toward any contestants and organises the election in a neutral way. That has been absent," he said.

Anies has previously been vocal about what he has described as irregularities in the months leading up to the election, including the massive distribution of social assistance in key electoral regions, such as Central Java.

"If you talk to most people in the general public I think most people will say that the election is over and done with. The majority are not paying attention, so we would like to see this also as public education," he said of the planned court case.

"We want to make sure that irregularities don't go unchecked," he added.

The move comes as parties supporting Anies and another presidential candidate, Ganjar Pranowo, have also discussed launching a parliamentary