Prabowo Subianto, the only challenger to President Joko Widodo in April’s presidential election, has seen his campaign beset with major PR setbacks, financial difficulties and lagging poll numbers since officially announcing his candidacy. According to the head of his campaign, he may be announcing his resignation from the race in a major speech tonight.
However, campaign chairman Djoko Santoso did not cite any of those difficulties experienced by the challenger’s campaign as a reason for Prabowo potentially announcing his departure from the race. Instead, he said Prabowo’s resignation, if it were to happen, would be due to concerns over voter fraud.
“Indeed, so as not to be too shocking, if Prabowo Subianto does make what would be his last statement, it would be that if he feels the potential for fraud is unavoidable, Prabowo Subianto will resign,” Djoko Santoso said yesterday as quoted by Detik.
Regarding the allegation of fraud, Djoko referred to a decision by the House of Representatives (DPR) to allow people with mental disabilities to register to vote.
Djoko did not elaborate further on possible mechanisms of voter fraud. A viral story regarding millions of ballots that had allegedly been tampered with in favor of President Joko Widodo was recently proven to be fake by the police, who have arrested some of the individuals allegedly behind the fake news.
There are in fact multiple election laws regulating the resignation of candidates from the presidential election, with one stating that “every candidate for President or Vice President who deliberately resigns after the appointment of candidates for President and Vice President until the implementation of the first round of voting is punishable by a maximum of five years imprisonment and a maximum fine of IDR 50 million”.
Addressing the potential for Prabowo to face legal reprecussions should he resign, Djoko — who, like Prabowo, is a former military general — said that they had both taken oaths as soldiers to uphold truth and justice and so they did not fear any such repercussions.
However, the deputy chair of Prabowo’s campaign, Hidayat Nur Wahid, said that Djoko’s statements were not official campaign decisions, seemingly attempting to play down concerns about Prabowo’s resignation by contradicting his direct superior on the campaign.
“I believe that it is not an official decision, it is still a personal opinion, because we have never discussed it,” Hidayat said today as quoted by Kompas. He went on to say that, even if there was potential for voter fraud, their campaign would fight to eliminate it by working together with the election commission.
It looks like we’ll just have to watch Prabowo’s speech, titled “Indonesia Memang” (Indonesia Wins), which he is scheduled to give at the Jakarta Convention Center at 7 pm tonight, to find out if he will indeed announce his resignation from the race or hint at the possibility.
Were Prabowo to resign from the race, it would be a historic first for any Indonesian presidential candidate and would almost certainly lead to a default win for President Joko Widodo as it would be legally impossible for another candidate to replace Prabowo or enter the race at this point.
If he doesn’t throw in the towel, Prabowo faces an extremely difficult path to victory with the election coming up in just over three months’ time on April 17. Almost every major poll shows him down by double digits against the incumbent, he and his campaigners have triggered protests on several occasions for allegedly spreading hoaxes and causing offense, and his campaign is reportedly in dire financial straits with its treasurer saying last week that he was eagerly pursuing new financial backers even after an infusion of funds from Prabowo’s running mate, Sandiaga Uno, in December.
A spokesman for Jokowi’s campaign, Ace Hasan Syadzily, reacted to Djoko’s statements and its accusations of fraud today by saying that it was like they were creating an “alibi” to use in the event that they lost, calling it “the loser’s way of thinking”.
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