Indonesia Says There Was No Fraud in Presidential Vote

(Bloomberg) -- The Indonesian government rejected opposition allegations of “massive fraud” in last week’s presidential vote and urged supporters of Prabowo Subianto to allow the election commission to peacefully complete the election process.

The opposition has claimed widespread tampering of voters list and accused the country’s independent election commission of colluding with President Joko Widodo’s administration to deny a win for Prabowo, as the former general is commonly known. Widodo, known as Jokowi, is on track to win a second term by a comfortable margin, according to unofficial results published last week, an outcome disputed by Prabowo.

With Prabowo’s campaign team claiming irregularities even in tabulating the votes, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Wiranto held a press conference on Wednesday and said the allegations are "unfounded" and meant to "de-legitimize the government and election organizers".

"There is no fraud," said Wiranto, who like many Indonesians uses one name. “Before, during and after voting on April 17, there were widespread allegations that there was a fraudulent, structured, massive and systemic conspiracy to secure victory for one candidate. The public should not believe this.”

Security Risks

Prabowo, who was also beaten by Jokowi in the 2014 election, has claimed victory, casting a shadow over the result and leading to concerns whether a lingering dispute may have implications for security and even impact foreign investment.

“We will be able to prove there is massive fraud,” Prabowo’s brother and campaign communications and media director Hashim Djojohadikusumo, told reporters on Monday. He said the irregularities were “systematic and structured”.

Prabowo, whose legal challenge of his loss in the last election was dismissed by the country’s Constitutional Court, has so far resisted offers to meet Jokowi’s representatives to discuss the disputed result.

Jokowi was leading the official count on Wednesday by about 10 percentage points with votes from about 29 percent of polling stations counted. The final result is not expected to be published for several weeks.

To contact the reporters on this story: Arys Aditya in Jakarta at aaditya5@bloomberg.net;Karlis Salna in Jakarta at ksalna@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Thomas Kutty Abraham, Clarissa Batino

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.