REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - One presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, would not accept the official result until allegations of cheating were investigated, one of his top aides said on Sunday. The rejection is certain to raise concerns of a protracted wrangle that could undermine confidence in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, or even trigger violence that has so far been almost entirely absent from this election.
By law, the General Elections Commission (KPU) must announce the result by July 22. One commissioner told Reuters there was no need to delay the result announcement. After the Prabowo Subianto camp previously insisted that it would abide by the KPU's official result of the July 9 election, it suddenly accused it of failing to properly investigate alleged cheating at the polls.
"If they don't, then that is a crime. This very much calls into question the legitimacy of the whole process," the former special forces commander told a hastily called news conference in a Jakarta hotel after meeting his key coalition partners.
Vice secretary general of Prabowo's Gerindra party, Fadli Zon, said there was evidence of many instances of cheating. "We ask the election committee to solve this problem with recounting," Zon said. "We will not accept (the result)," he said, demanding the announcement be delayed until the problem was resolved.
Asked if he was challenging the credibility of KPU, Zon said: "Yes, of course."
The Prabowo camp has sounded an increasingly shrill note in the wake of the election, accusing his opponent, Jakarta governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, of jumping the gun by claiming victory shortly after the polls closed. Both camps have suggested the other was cheating.
However, independent election watchers have praised the Elections Commission for its handling of polling and the transparency during the nearly two-week counting process.
"So it's just too much, it's excessive to say that the KPU is not credible. In fact we have built our credibility with transparency," KPU commissioner Sigit Pamungkas told Reuters. "So far the counting process is going according to schedule. We have not thought about postponing or making a new rule that alters our schedule."
Once the KPU does announce the result, the candidates can challenge it in the Constitutional Court which would likely mean weeks of further delays in formally announcing a new president who would take over in October. Signaling his concern, outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, before a dinner at the presidential palace on Monday night to which he invited both candidates, called for a peaceful end to the election of the next leader of the world's third largest democracy.
"I urge all the people of Indonesia to safeguard the final chapter of the election process," said Yudhoyono who is coming to the end of his second five-year term.
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