he police dispersed Thursday a group of Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno supporters that attempted to hold a rally demanding that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin be disqualified from the presidential race.
Initiated by National Mandate Party (PAN) politician Eggi Sudjana and retired Army general Kivlan Zen, the protestors, grouped under the People's Elements for Justice and Truth (Gerak), gathered at their meeting point at Lapangan Banteng Park, Central Jakarta, at 12:30 p.m. before moving to the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) at around 2 p.m. to deliver their demands on the street.
The rally was supposed to head to the General Elections Commission (KPU). However, without a rally permit from the police, they were limited to delivering their demands for several minutes at the Bawaslu office.
Eggi, who was named a treason suspect a few hours before arriving at the Bawaslu office, said the demand for Jokowi's disqualification was due to alleged fraud committed by him as a presidential candidate, not as the country’s incumbent president.
“It is wrong for them to consider the people power movement treasonous because our concerns are not being addressed to a legitimate government. No, our concerns are for a fraudulent candidate. Please note that,” Eggi told the press in front of the Bawaslu office on Thursday.
He said Jokowi needed to look at the previous presidents, who knew how to react when people carried out such movements. He cited an example of when first Indonesian president Sukarno let Soeharto seize power in 1966 with the controversial March 11 Indonesian presidential executive order (Supersemar).
"Soeharto also made his resignation because of people power [...] And one of the best was Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, who was surrounded by the people at the Presidential Palace but sincere enough to [accept] being deposed,” he said.
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