Indonesia Braces for Protests as Prabowo Win Set to Be Declared

Chandra Asmara
·1 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Indonesia is beefing up security ahead of the official announcement of the result of February presidential elections, where Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto has already claimed victory.

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The General Election Commission will declare the official result on or before March 20. Protests may occur as other presidential candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo are expected to file a legal challenge over Prabowo’s likely victory, alleging fraud in the election process.

“There will indeed be demonstrations. The scale is still small to medium, but we continue to prepare,” said Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto after a closed-door meeting on Friday with the country’s minister of home affairs and chiefs of the police, army and intelligence agency. “We will prevent and secure so that there is no greater escalation.”

About 1,200 joint police personnel have been stationed around the offices of election agencies in Jakarta on Friday. “We continue to formulate measures to anticipate potential problems and vulnerabilities that may occur,” Tjahjanto said of the planned deployments for the official announcement in coming days.

For a country with a history of violent demonstrations, this year’s election have largely been peaceful, with only scattered protests calling for the impeachment of President Joko Widodo for his perceived backing of Prabowo. In contrast, the announcement of the election results five years ago — when Prabowo had lost to Jokowi, as the incumbent is known — sparked deadly riots that left hundreds injured.

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