Indonesian presidential rivals plan to contest official election results with allegations of fraud

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The camps of the two Indonesian presidential candidates who appear to have lost in an election last month said Thursday they plan to challenge the official results in the Constitutional Court with allegations of widespread fraud.

Indonesians voted on Feb. 14 for a successor to popular President Joko Widodo, who is serving his second and final term. The election is a three-way race among current Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and two former provincial governors, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo.

Subianto is a former general linked to past human rights abuses who had the incumbent president’s tacit backing because Widodo’s son is Subianto’s vice-presidential running mate. Subianto claimed victory on election day after unofficial tallies showed that he won the poll with nearly 60% of the votes.

The General Election Commission has officially tallied over 78% of the votes as of Thursday, with Subianto taking 58.82%, Baswedan 24.50% and Pranowo 16.68%. Baswedan and Pranowo have refused to concede and alleged fraud in the election.

The official vote-counting process, which is lengthy and laborious, may take up to 35 days to be completed — the maximum time regulated by the Elections Law — and the election commission is expected to announce the official winner by March 20.

“I’m now preparing a petition to go to the Constitutional Court,” said Todung Mulya Lubis, a prominent lawyer who represents Pranowo and his running mate Mohammad Mahfud. “That’s the only legal course that we have to settle the election disputes, and for that we need a lot of witnesses and experts to testify.”

Lubis said that election irregularities occurred before, during and after the polls, but noted his team has had difficulty