Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto will challenge results from the July 9 election at Indonesia’s Constitutional Court, focusing a final bid for leadership of the world’s fourth most-populous nation on what his team suspects are irregularities involving 21 million votes. Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo was declared president-elect of the Southeast Asian nation Tuesday with 53.15% of the vote, defeating Mr. Subianto by a margin of 8.4 million votes. More than 133 million ballots were cast in what was a tightly-contested two-man race to the end. Mr. Subianto’s campaign team on Wednesday raised questions about voting at about 52,000 of the country’s 479,000 polling stations and demanded a revote at those stations. They said that ballots cast at those stations far exceeded their total number of eligible voters. “We will prove improper conduct,” said team lawyer Mahendra Datta.
Indonesia’s election commission, which announced its official tally Tuesday night, didn’t respond to requests for comment. In recent days, as ongoing counting showed Mr. Widodo winning and Mr. Subianto foreshadowing a legal challenge, the commission said it followed all recommendations from a supervisory agency to address claims of irregularities.
Mr. Subianto’s team said that by Friday it would submit a claim to the Constitutional Court, the highest in Indonesia when it comes to resolving election disputes. The nine-member court would have until mid-August to issue a decision.
Mr. Subianto’s brother and adviser, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, alleged that votes were “mysteriously added” to Mr. Widodo’s tally from various regions during the final counting stage.
“The indication of massive fraud and widespread irregularities is overwhelming,” Mr. Subianto’s campaign spokesman Tantowi Yahya told reporters. “We cannot and will not ignore the evidence while the will of the people remains in question.”
Full Article: Subianto Set to Challenge Indonesia Election Results – WSJ.