Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Constitutional Court has rejected lawsuits filed by presidential candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, who lost in February’s presidential election against defence minister Prabowo Subianto.
During a marathon court session in Jakarta on Monday (Apr 22), the court ruled in favour of completely rejecting the appeals seeking a rerun of the presidential election in a five-three decision.
The election ruling, which cannot be appealed against and was the last legal recourse for both Mr Anies and Mr Ganjar means the result of the presidential poll will be upheld, clearing Mr Prabowo’s path to becoming the country’s next president.
The official results released by the electoral commission on Mar 20, showed Mr Prabowo won a landslide victory of 58.59 per cent of the vote, compared to Mr Anies’ 24.95 per cent and Mr Ganjar’s 16.47 per cent.
In their petitions to the Constitutional Court, Mr Anies and Mr Ganjar claimed that the poll was marred by systemic frauds and argued that government institutions, regional leaders and state-sponsored social assistance programmes had been misused by outgoing president Joko Widodo to sway the votes in favour of Mr Prabowo.
The judges ruled there was no evidence to support those allegations.
“The plaintiff’s petition has no legal basis in its entirety,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo.
Judge Arsul Sani stated: “The Court does not see any causality between the distribution of social assistance and the increase in votes for any candidate.”
The petitions had also sought to disqualify Mr Prabowo and his vice presidential running mate, Mr Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who is the president’s eldest son, on grounds of ethical violations.
Mr Gibran’s candidacy was made possible by a controversial ruling from the top court presided over by his uncle, former Chief Justice Anwar Usman.
Prof Anwar was barred from participating in the presidential election lawsuits for breaching the judges’ code of ethics.
Despite the ethical breach, the judges said there was no evidence of nepotism or presidential interference regarding that decision.
Mr Anies, former governor of Jakarta, informed the media at the courthouse that he would issue an official statement later in the evening in response to the ruling.
Mr Ganjar and his running mate, Mr Mahfud MD, have conceded defeat and accepted the court ruling.
The ruling party PDIP’s presidential nominee congratulated Mr Prabowo.
A few metres outside of the constitutional court, hundreds of protesters demand that Jokowi be tried and Prabowo-Gibran be disqualified.
“God willing the truth and justice will prevail one day,” said one of the protesters. They also chanted: “God is great!”
Mr Nicky Fahrizal, a Jakarta-based political analyst with think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) told CNA that it is the right decision for Mr Ganjar to accept the court’s ruling.
“How his career next will evolve depends on the instruction of Megawati and PDI-P’s position in the next government.
One thing for sure, Puan (Megawati’s daughter and house speaker) has been given the mandate (by Megawati) to explore possibilities and communicate with political parties,” he said.
The Indonesian Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is both Mr Ganjar and Mdm Megawati’s political party.
Meanwhile, Mr Nicky believes Mr Prabowo will try to ask his political opponents to work together as he needs a grand coalition.
“The aim is to accelerate the implementation of programmes he campaigned for, to have political stability and national reconciliation,” he said.
He opines it is not beneficial for Mr Anies to join Mr Prabowo’s government, should he want to contest in the upcoming gubernatorial election in November or even in the next presidential election in 2029.
Mr Nicky said Mr Anies is popular in Jakarta and could potentially run again.
Additional reporting by Kiki Siregar.
