Indonesian President Joko Widodo Re-elected For A Second Term In Office

Joko Widodo has been re-elected as the president of Indonesia. The official result released by Indonesia's Election Commission on Tuesday shows President Widodo won by 55.5% of the vote.Counting was completed before midnight and the results were announced before witness from both campaigns.

Widodo and his vice-presidential candidate Ma'ruf Amin received 85,607,362 of the votes, which is 11 % more than the 68,650,239 votes cast for their opponent Mr Prabowo Subianto and his running-mate Sandiaga Uno, said election commissioner Evi Novida Ginting Manik.

The final results of the April 17 poll were expected to be announced on Wednesday but fearing unrest, the election commission released the results early. Widodo’s opponent Mr. Subianto had refused to accept defeat and declared himself the winner after the quick count drawn from a sample of polling stations declared Widodo the winner. Police and soldiers were on high alert in the state capital anticipating an unrest of public demonstration by Subianto’s supporters, The Straits Times reported.

Subianto has accused Widodo of massive election fraud but no evidence has been provided yet. The opposition has three days to challenge the official count in the constitutional court. Subianto’s team has refused to accept the result and claimed the election was full of irregularities.

In Indonesia, votes are counted publicly and the commission posts the tabulation from each polling station on its website, allowing for independent verification. If Subianto complaints about the election manipulation, the court will be forced to look into the evidence provided by the opposition and the process can go on for months. Subianto has previously challenged result in 2014 and it took the court until August that year to formally study and reject the claim.

One of the witness for Subianto told Associated Press, “ We reject the results of the presidential election. This refusal is a moral responsibility for us to not give up the fight against injustice, fraud, arbitrariness, lies and any action that will harm democracy.”

Widodo and his campaign team have not responded to the victory yet.