JAKARTA: Indonesia’s legal judge has rejected lawsuits filed by presidential candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, who lost in February’s presidential election against defence secretary Prabowo Subianto.
During a marathon court session in Jakarta on Monday ( Apr 22 ), the court ruled in favour of completely rejecting the appeals seeking a rerun of the presidential election in a five-three decision.
The election decision, which cannot be appealed against and was the last legal remedy for both Mr Anies and Mr Ganjar means the result of the national surveys may be upheld, clearing Mr Prabowo’s journey to becoming the country ’s next leader.
The standard results released by the political committee on Mar 20, showed Mr Prabowo won a landslide victory of 58. 59 per cent of the ballot, compared to Mr Anies ‘ 24. 95 per share and Mr Ganjar’s 16. 47 per share.
In their requests to the Constitutional Court Mr Anies and Mr Ganjar claimed that the poll was marred by widespread crooks and argued that government organizations, local leaders, and state-sponsored social support programmes had been misused by outgoing president Joko Widodo to influence the votes in favour of Mr Prabowo.
The courts ruled there was no evidence to support those claims.
” The defendant’s petition has no constitutional basis in its remainder,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo.
Judge Arsul Sani stated,” The Court does not see any causation between the distribution of social support and the raise in vote for any member, ”
The requests had also sought to disqualify Mr Prabowo and his evil political running mate, Mr Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who is the government’s eldest son, on basis of social violations.
Mr Gibran’s election was made feasible by a questionable decision from the top prosecutor presided over by his aunt, former Chief Justice Anwar Usman.
Prof Anwar was barred from participating in the presidential election claims for breaching the judges ’ code of ethics.
Despite the moral violation, the judges said there was no proof of nepotism or political disturbance regarding that decision.
Mr Anies, former governor of Jakarta, informed the press at the courthouse that he would issue an official statement in response to the ruling later in the evening ( Apr 22 ).
Mr Ganjar and his running mate, Mr Mahfud MD, have conceded battle and accepted the court decision.
The ruling party PDIP’s presidential candidate congratulated Mr Prabowo.
More monitoring by Kiki Siregar.