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‘Don’t join May 22 rally’, NU and Muhammadiyah say
Security personnel and Muslim organizations are trying to prevent people from joining street protests to reject the election results.
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A policeman stops a bus at the gate of Suramadu bridge connecting Madura island and Java island in Surabaya, East Java, on Sunday. The joint security personnel in several regions in the country have raided bus terminals and stations to prevent people from participating in the planned rally to reject election results initiated by supporters of losing candidate Prabowo Subianto. (Antara/Didik Suhartono)
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head of the announcement of the official election results on Wednesday, security personnel across the country have launched measures to prevent local residents from going to the capital city of Jakarta, amid reports that supporters of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto are planning to take to the streets to challenge the election result.
Indonesia’s largest Muslim organizations have followed suit by calling on their members not to participate in street protests and to accept the election results.
The General Elections Commission (KPU) is scheduled to announce the official election results on Wednesday. As of Saturday, the KPU had finished counting votes in 28 out of 34 provinces. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is leading the tally with 55 percent of the popular vote.
The Jakarta chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim organization, issued a circular on Friday calling on around 7,000 takmirs (mosque managers) across Greater Jakarta not to accommodate May 22 protest participants who want to stay overnight in their respective mosques.
“They are still allowed to come to the mosque if they want to pray,” NU Jakarta regional mosque management head, Husni Muchsin, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
“We are only restricting them from expressing their political stance during their time in the mosque. We want to avoid potential conflict [among supporters of different candidates],” he added.
The circular was in line with a message conveyed by NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj in a video uploaded onto NU’s official YouTube channel on Saturday. He called on every NU member and other Indonesian Muslims not to participate in the May 22 protest.
