The Constitutional Court (MK) has cleared the last legal stumbling block to President Joko Widodo’s path to reelection by dismissing his challenger Prabowo Subianto’s lawsuit, which accused the incumbent’s administration of committing massive and systemic voter fraud in April’s election.
In a televised public hearing yesterday that started in the early afternoon and stretched into the night, the panel of Constitutional Court judges explained the multitude of reasons why the evidence submitted by Prabowo and his campaign team was insufficient to prove their allegations of vote manipulation, while their claims of tactics such as vote buying, money politics and media restrictions by President Jokowi’s campaign were deemed unfounded and outside the bounds of the court’s jurisdiction.
“The plaintiff’s case is legally groundless,” said chief Justice Anwar Usman. “We reject (his) demand in its entirety.”
One of the most often reiterated points made by the judges today was that MK only has jurisdiction to rule specifically on matters regarding the determination of the actual vote tallies, whereas many of Prabowo’s team’s arguments — such as those accusing various officials of supporting Jokowi and pressuring others to vote for him — were matters that fall under the jurisdiction of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).
Also yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected a separate lawsuit by Prabowo’s campaign against Bawaslu for the supervisory agency’s to reject their reports of election fraud by the incumbent.
The Constitutional Court judges also described a significant portion of the evidence presented by Prabowo’s legal counsel in terms such as “fake news” and “hoaxes” (including their submission of online news articles as evidence) and thus far from the quality of evidence needed to prove their fraud claims.
After the ruling, Prabowo said he would consider his options.
“This ruling is very disappointing for us and our supporters but as has been agreed we will comply with and follow the constitution,” he said in a televised address.
“I will consult with my legal team,” he added.
Prabowo, who lost a similar court battle in 2014 when Jokowi first defeated him, has little recourse, according to constitutional law expert Refly Harun.
“If the claim is rejected then it’s game over” for Prabowo, he said before the court’s ruling.
The Constitutional Court lawsuit was filed by Prabowo and his campaign team earlier in the month following the candidate’s defeat in April’s election, which was officially announced by the General Election Commission (KPU) on May 21.
Most legal experts believed that Prabowo had little to no chance of winning his lawsuit, which sought to overturn President Jokowi’s re-election victory with claims of massive and systemic voting fraud. In a devastating dissection of Prabowo’s case, Professor Simon Butt of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society, said the failed candidate’s legal team would need “an evidentiary miracle” to avoid losing in court.
The hearing proved to be quite the embarrassment for Prabowo’s campaign, with much of the nation’s focus being on the plaintiff’s comically questionable witnesses, particularly one man who violated a detention order (due to his suspect status in a case of spreading misinformation about voter fraud) in order to testify for Prabowo in court.
Around 3,000 protesters turned up outside MK in support of Prabowo, despite reports that the National Police forbade any public gatherings outside the courthouse on verdict day. The protests were peaceful, in contrast to the violent and chaotic protests and riots that engulfed parts of Central Jakarta after the General Election Commission (KPU) announced that Prabowo had officially lost the vote count.
Authorities deployed around 50,000 police and military personnel in Jakarta to keep the city secure in the event of unrest.
-With additional reporting by AFP
