Largely beaten by Prabowo Subianto during the presidential election in Indonesia, Anies Baswedan turns to the country’s Constitutional Court, accusing his rival of irregularities and fraud surrounding the vote and the campaign.
“We have officially filed an application with the Constitutional Court to challenge the election,” Ari Yusuf Amir, the head of Anies Baswedan’s legal team, told the media on Thursday, March 21, outside the campaign headquarters .
On Wednesday, the electoral commission officially announced the victory of Prabowo Subianto, the current defense minister, more than a month after the February 14 presidential election. The 72-year-old former general, who had been leading the polls for months, won in his third attempt with a comfortable majority of 58.6% of the vote against the two other candidates Anies Baswedan (24.9%). ), former governor of Jakarta, and Ganjar Pranowo (16%), former governor of Central Java.
But the campaign was marked by accusations about possible interference by outgoing President Joko Widodo, nicknamed Jokowi, and the conditions under which his son Gibran Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, was able to run for vice president.
Legally too young, Gibran, mayor of the city of Surakarta, was only able to run following a controversial decision by the Constitutional Court, adopted thanks to the decisive vote of the president of the court, Anwar Usman, in-law brother of Joko Widodo. Mr. Usman was subsequently removed from his position. But Prabowo Subianto and his entourage, like Jokowi, rejected all accusations of impropriety.
“Intervention of state apparatuses”
On Wednesday evening, shortly after the announcement of the results, Anies Baswedan severely condemned the conditions in which his rival won. “A leader born from a process marred by cheating and violations will result in a regime that produces policies full of injustice, and we do not want that to happen,” he said in a statement.
Anies Baswedan’s running mate, Iskandar Muhaiman, clarified on Wednesday evening that the alleged irregularities concerned in particular “the intervention of state apparatuses”.
According to the future president’s team of lawyers, the result of the election is unlikely to be called into question due to the very significant difference in votes between Prabowo Subianto and the two other candidates, local media reported.
