Indonesia’s top court upholds Prabowo’s presidential win, dismissing fraud allegations from rivals

Prabowo, 72, won the election by a substantial margin of votes, but his rivals – former governors Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo – had sought his disqualification and a revote through the Constitutional Court.

Five of the judges ruled in favour of rejecting their petitions, while three gave dissenting opinions. Chief Justice Suhartoyo said in his final statement that there was “no legal basis” to suggest there had been any systematic fraud or that state intervention had been used to sway voters.

However, analysts said that Monday’s court ruling would finally confirm and cement Defence Minister Prabowo’s electoral victory.

Otto Hasibuan, a lawyer for Prabowo, said the ruling represented “a victory for all Indonesians”, and reaffirmed that the former military leader was looking forward to taking office in October.

Representatives of both former candidates said they would respect the court’s decision.

“The decision of the court upheld the status quo, which is not surprising,” said Ian Wilson, a senior fellow at the Indo-Pacific Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth.

The result of the court’s ruling shows how Widodo’s government was able to “manoeuvre within the very big legal loopholes that exist, and do exactly what they have been accused of, but in a way that the court was not able to ascertain was a breach of their regulations”, he added.

Anies and Ganjar, who received around 25 per cent and 16 per cent of the vote, respectively, also claimed that Widodo had used his influence to support Prabowo’s campaign by mobilising regional officials and social aid programmes.

This included the distribution of money and basic food items such as rice and oil to sway voters towards Prabowo, who won the election with 58 per cent of