Jokowi camp accuses rivals of inconsistency after lawyer changes claim to say Prabowo received 71 million votes in election

The brother of former general and president candidate Prabowo Subianto, Hashim Djojohadikusumo (2nd R), and their lawyer Bambang Widjojanto (L), submit a lawsuit to the constitutional court in Jakarta, on May 24, 2019, regarding a presidential election results dispute. Photo by Dany Krisnadhi/AFP
The brother of former general and president candidate Prabowo Subianto, Hashim Djojohadikusumo (2nd R), and their lawyer Bambang Widjojanto (L), submit a lawsuit to the constitutional court in Jakarta, on May 24, 2019, regarding a presidential election results dispute. Photo by Dany Krisnadhi/AFP

Today is the start of the Constitutional Court (MK) hearings on the lawsuit put forth by defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and his campaign, who have repeatedly accused President Joko Widodo of systematic and widespread election fraud in April’s election. However, it appears even Prabowo’s camp is unsure as to the extent to which they are claiming to have been cheated.

This morning, former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chief Bambang Widjojanto, who now heads Prabowo’s campaign’s team of legal counselors, issued a press release claiming that, based on a count conducted internally by their IT team, Prabowo should have received around 2.5 million more votes while Jokowi should have received 20 million fewer votes than the official count by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

“So the real tally should have been 62,886,362 (48%) for candidate pair 01 (Jokowi and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin) and 71,247,792 (52%) for candidate pair 02 (Prabowo and his running mate Sandiaga Uno),” Bambang wrote in the press release, as picked up by Detik.

In their article, Detik noted a mathematical error in Bambang’s calculations, namely that 71.2 million out of the total number of voters actually amounts to 53%, while Jokowi’s supposed 62.8 million amounts for 47%.

That small detail aside, Bambang’s numbers are not even consistent with what the data his team submitted in the lawsuit, which only claims that Prabowo received around 68.6 million.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time Prabowo’s camp has presented inconsistent and seemingly arbitrary data to back their claim to victory. On the evening of the election, Prabowo claimed that he gained 62% of votes despite all quick count pollsters pointing to a Jokowi victory. That number was later revised to 54.24% based on the results of their internal count of the election, the specifics of which was never revealed to the public.

Jokowi’s camp says the inconsistency presented by Prabowo’s camp shows that they can’t prove that the election was tampered with as they claim.

“As the days go by, Prabowo’s team looks increasingly dazed. They’re so confused and they have no data and concrete facts, so they fabricate these changing stories that dumb down the public,” Abdul Kadir Karding, deputy head of Jokowi’s campaign, told reporters today as quoted by Detik.

The court is expected to deliver its ruling on Prabowo’s lawsuit on June 28.



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