Feisty: A woman stands by a banner reading, “Reject the Rigged Presidential Election”, across from the Constitutional Court in Central Jakarta on Tuesday. The protest was held by the People’s Bastion of Democracy, a group affiliated to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which is seeking a revote or a runoff featuring their candidate. JP/Nurhayati
Megawati Soekarnoputri's campaign team is demanding either a revote or a runoff of the presidential election, after filing a suit Tuesday with the Constitutional Court against the poll results.
They claimed the evidence they submitted to the court would show 28.5 million votes for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were invalid, thus giving the incumbent a total of less than 50 percent of national votes, which would call for a runoff election between the second-placed Megawati and Yudhoyono.
The presidential election law stipulates a candidate must get more than 50 percent of the votes to win the election outright.
“If we can’t get a runoff, then we want the KPU [General Elections Commission] to repeat the election, because of massive fraud and violations during the election,” Gayus Lumbuun, head of Megawati’s advocacy team, said at a press conference after submitting the evidence.
He added the team hope the Constitutional Court would at least order the KPU to hold a revote in 28 provinces where the team said the most severe violations had been uncovered.
Another member of the team, Arteria Dahlan, added the team had found solid evidence regarding 28.5 million “disputed” votes in these provinces.
“Based on our investigation, those votes are mysterious and of questionable validity,” he said.
“They also benefited Yudhoyono. We found solid evidence showing most of the ballots had already been marked a day before the election.”
Yudhoyono, from the Democratic Party, and his running mate, former Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, bagged 60.8 percent of total votes during the election, thereby sealing a victory that was made official last week by the KPU.
Megawati, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and her running mate, Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), won 26.8 percent, while the Golkar Party’s Jusuf Kalla and his running mate, Wiranto of the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), got only 12.4 percent.
Arteria said the advocacy team’s calculations revealed the election would have to go to a runoff vote between Megawati and Yudhoyono, if the 28.5 million disputed votes were struck off the incumbent’s tally.
“Our calculations show Yudhoyono's real vote count is only around 48 percent,” he said.
“I also personally think that, judging from the massive scale of the violations we found, there was a grand design behind all the havoc.”
However, Democratic Party deputy chairman Andi Mallarangeng said Megawati’s challenge would not alter the results of the final vote tally by the KPU, since there were “no significant” findings in the evidence submitted.
State Secretary Hatta Radjasa, head of Yudhoyono's campaign team, said Megawati’s claim that her team had uncovered 28 million invalid votes benefiting the incumbent boggled the mind.
“There were witnesses at all polling stations,” he said.
“Now let’s use common sense, let’s use logic: where did the 28 million invalid votes come from?”
Kalla, meanwhile, claimed the challenge to the election results filed with the Constitutional Court was all part of the effort to uphold democracy, and not a case of sour grapes on the part of either himself or Megawati.
“It’s not about winning or losing, but about the principle that this nation must move forward in a democratic and fair manner,” he said during a visit to his hometown of Makassar, South Sulawesi. (hdt)
Erwida Maulia and Andi Hajramurni contributed to this story from Jakarta and Makassar.
