Controversial Indonesian defense minister wins presidential election

• Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto was elected president and declared victory on Wednesday.
• Subianto, accused of abuses under the brutal dictator Suharto, has chosen the son of the popular incumbent president Joko Widodo as his running mate. He is scheduled to take office on October 20th.
• In last month’s election, Subianto won 58.6% of the vote, with turnout reported to be about 80%.

Indonesia’s Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto won the presidential election in one of the world’s largest democracies on Wednesday, defeating two former governors who vowed to challenge the results in court over allegations of fraud. It was announced.

Subianto, whose running mate was the son of a popular outgoing president accused of human rights abuses under previous dictatorships, received 58.6% of the vote. According to the General Election Commission, former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan won 24.9% of the vote, while former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo won 16.5%. The polling station tally sheets have been posted on the website so that they can be independently verified.

Subianto said he respects those who voted differently.

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“The election is over,” he said at a press conference. “We call on all Indonesians to look to the future together. Our challenges as a nation are so great that we must unite and join hands.”

Approximately 5,000 police officers were on alert in Jakarta, the capital, in preparation for protests by supporters of defeated candidates. The headquarters of the Election Commission was barricaded with razor wire.

About 300 demonstrators held banners and placards criticizing outgoing President Joko Widodo for supporting Subianto and alleging widespread fraud. They burned garbage near the Election Commission premises along with photos of the president.

In Indonesia, election challenges can be registered with the Constitutional Court for three days after the official results are announced. Mr. Baswedan and Mr. Pranowo refused to budge and said they planned to appeal.

“We don’t want to overlook these various deviations from democracy without a historical record and set a bad precedent for future election organizers,” Baswedan said after the final results were announced.

They allege wrongdoing by naming Widodo’s son as his running mate. Widodo is unable to run again, and his son’s candidacy is seen as a sign of his tacit support for Subianto.

Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabumin Raka, 37, became Subianto’s running mate after the Constitutional Court made an exception to the minimum age requirement of 40 for candidates. Widodo’s brother-in-law, the court’s chief justice, was subsequently removed by the Ethics Commission for failing to resign and for making last-minute changes to the requirements for running for office.

The new president will take office on October 20 and must appoint his cabinet within two weeks.

Subianto declared victory on election day last month, receiving nearly 60% of the vote in an unofficial count.

According to the Election Commission, the turnout was about 80%.

Mr. Subianto won 36 of 38 states with 96.2 million votes, while Mr. Baswedan received 40.9 million votes in two states. Baswedan, a former president of Islamic University, won an overwhelming majority in the conservative westernmost province of Aceh.

Candidate Pranowo of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle received 27 million votes but failed to win any provinces.

Prominent lawyer Todun Mulya Lubis, who represented Pranowo, argued that election fraud occurred before, during and after voting.

Widodo denied allegations of fraud and said the election process was monitored by a number of people, including candidates’ representatives, election supervisory authorities and security officials.

“Having this kind of multi-layered oversight will eliminate the possibility of fraud,” Widodo told reporters last month. “Please don’t call out fraud. We have a mechanism to resolve fraud. If you have evidence, take it to the Election Supervisory Authority. If you have evidence, please challenge it to the Constitutional Court.”

Mr Baswedan and Mr Pranowo’s campaign teams said they would provide evidence of their claims.

But Rubis said his team is having trouble getting witnesses to testify in court because of alleged intimidation by authorities. He acknowledged that it would be difficult to successfully contest an election result with such a large official margin of victory.

The Ethics Commission, which removed Anwar Usman as chief justice of the court, has allowed him to remain on the court under certain conditions, including a ban on him being involved in deciding this year’s election disputes.

That means any such case brought to court would be decided by eight judges instead of all nine.

Subianto’s campaign highlighted the Widodo government’s progress in reducing poverty and vowed to continue the modernization policies that have propelled Indonesia into rapid growth and brought it into the ranks of middle-income countries.

But Subianto has offered few other concrete plans for his presidency, leaving observers wondering what his election could mean for the country’s growth and still-maturing democracy. remains opaque.

Mr. Subianto lost the last two presidential elections to Mr. Widodo, and the Constitutional Court rejected his bid to overturn the election results, citing baseless allegations of fraud.

This time, Subianto accepted a popular leader and declared himself his successor. The president’s choice of Widodo’s son as his running mate has sparked fears that dynastic control could emerge in Indonesia’s 25-year-old democracy.

Subianto comes from one of the wealthiest families in the country. His father was an influential politician who served in the cabinet under dictator Suharto and the first president Sukarno.

Suspicions of links to torture, disappearances and other human rights abuses during the final years of the brutal Suharto dictatorship, during which Subianto served as a special forces lieutenant general, also remain unsolved.

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Subianto was expelled from the military for his role in the kidnapping, torture and other ill-treatment of activists. Although he was never tried and strongly denies his involvement, several of his subordinates were tried and convicted.

It is unclear how Subianto will respond to political dissent, street protests and critical journalism. Many activists see ties to the Suharto regime as a threat.