Members of a coalition supporting the Prabowo
Subianto-Hatta Rajasa presidential ticket have conceded defeat following the
release of a temporary real count by Indonesia's General Elections Commission
(KPU) that shows the ticket has lost to the party of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and
running mate Jusuf Kalla.
According
to counts based on votes at the subdistrict and regency/municipality level by
several independent observers, the Jokowi-Kalla ticket leads with about 52 per
cent of the vote.
The KPU
is expected to announce the final result on Tuesday.
“The
election has been completed and my job is complete. I’ve failed the
Prabowo-Hatta ticket,” said Mahfud MD, the head of Prabowo’s campaign team,
during a televised interview with Metro TV.
“I
don’t care about the politics surrounding the election.”
The
former Constitutional Court chief justice added that any attempts to conduct
revotes in polling stations or postpone the announcement of the result would
not make much difference, as it would not stop vote rigging practices that he
claimed had taken place on both sides.
Similarly,
senior National Mandate Party (PAN) politician Amien Rais, also a member of the
Prabowo-Hatta team, reportedly passed a message around the party’s lawmakers,
asking all members to accept defeat to Jokowi-Kalla.
Several
PAN lawmakers have confirmed the circulated text message.
PAN
deputy chairman Drajad Wibowo declined to comment on the validity of the
message, emphasizing that “Pak Amien is a statesman, an ulama [religious
leader] and a true democrat who puts the interests of the people above all.”
“Pak
Amien is not the final decision maker in the coalition as it’s a multi-party
coalition. However, he is always a role model in PAN,” Drajad said as quoted by
kompas.com.
The
vote tally reached the national level on Sunday as regional election committees
gathered to present provincial results in a plenary
meeting.
Witnesses
from the Jokowi camp voiced their suspicions about the high number of invalid
votes in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and Aceh.
“In
NTB, this mostly happened in Lombok Timur Tinggi regency,” said Sudyatmiko
Ariwibowo of the Jokowi team.
KPU
chairman Husni Kamil Manik said nothing “extraordinary” had caused the high
number of invalid voters, but promised to follow up the findings in the near
future.
Prabowo’s
camp questioned the high number of additional voters who were not listed in
Riau Islands, saying there was a mobilization of women workers in the Riau
Islands to vote for a particular candidate.
“Many
residents in Batam do not have identity documents related to Batam, Riau
Islands, so they are not registered in the primary lists. But according to KPU
regulations, unregistered voters can cast their votes by showing a letter of
current domicile,” Riau Islands General Elections Commission (KPUD) chairman
Said Sirajuddin said.
As of
press time, the KPU has announced nine provinces, with Jokowi leading, winning
five provinces, while the other four favored Prabowo-Hatta.
Jokowi
won West Kalimantan, Riau Islands, Jambi, Bangka Belitung and Yogyakarta.
Prabowo
saw strong support in NTB, Aceh, South Sumatra and South Kalimantan.
The
plenary session is still completing the process for the provinces of Bengkulu,
West Java and West Sulawesi.
Prabowo
expressed confidence he would win and slammed reports of his team members
acknowledging defeat, branding them “misleading”.
Margareth
S. Aritonang, Ina Parlina and Haeril Halim
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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