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Jakarta Post

Politicking continues as city burns

As rioting and violence gripped Jakarta following the official 2019 general election results announcement, political maneuvering continued behind the scenes as parties consider postelection repositioning amid mounting tension

Karina M. Tehusijarana, Marguerite Afra Sapiie and Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, May 24, 2019

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Politicking continues as city burns

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span>As rioting and violence gripped Jakarta following the official 2019 general election results announcement, political maneuvering continued behind the scenes as parties consider postelection repositioning amid mounting tension.

Incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who the General Elections Commission (KPU) said won reelection, intensified communication with top figures who backed the candidacy of losing candidate Prabowo Subianto.

Jokowi invited Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the son of former president and Democratic Party patron Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), and People’s Consultative Assembly speaker and National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Zulkifli Hasan to separate meetings at the Bogor Palace on Wednesday.

In a statement to the press after the closed door meeting, Agus said he had taken on the role of bridging communication between Jokowi and Yudhoyono, who had wanted to share his wisdom and experience with the incumbent on how to handle the postelection situation. “There should be [...] room for dialogue and proper solutions.”

Separately, Zulkifli echoed Agus’ statement, calling for all parties to settle any dispute through peaceful means and discussion, while the rejection of the election results must be filed with the Constitutional Court. “Democracy needs patience, even extra patience,” Zulkifli said

Speculation has been rife that the Democrats and PAN are considering to join the ruling coalition, especially after executives of both parties hinted that the two might leave Prabowo’s camp after the election was over.

The Democrats and PAN are also the only parties in the opposition camp that have acknowledged Jokowi’s victory as announced by the KPU.

Prabowo previously announced his intention to file a petition with the Constitutional Court to dispute the election results, claiming “structured, massive and systematic” election fraud from the Jokowi camp.

Jokowi’s campaign team said it respected the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno ticket’s move to challenge the results in a constitutional manner, but criticized the Prabowo camp’s “ambiguous and hands-off” approach to the rioting by some of its supporters.

“We urge Pak Prabowo and Pak Sandiaga to be consistent in supporting a constitutional resolution and not hedge their bets,” Jokowi campaign team program director Aria Bima said at a press conference on Thursday.

Members of the Prabowo camp, such as PAN patron Amien Rais, have previously called for a “people power” movement to reject the election results, but on Wednesday, Prabowo’s campaign team rejected responsibility for the riots, claiming it was the work of provocateurs.

Prabowo himself has since asked protesters to go home in a video distributed early on Thursday, following further clashes with police on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

“Just trust your leaders, we’ll fight through the constitutional legal process. I want you all to be patient and stay calm,” he said.

The Jokowi team remained unimpressed, however, and said it hoped that the Prabowo camp would not mobilize supporters to “intimidate” the Constitutional Court during the election dispute.

“Don’t let [the court proceedings] just be an excuse to prolong [the riots],” campaign team official Usman Kansong said.

Court spokesperson Fajar Laksono said the court had scheduled the first presidential election dispute hearing on June 14 with a ruling deadline on June 28, meaning that the election results will not be set in stone until the end of next month.

In the mean time, Jokowi campaign team deputy chairman Arsul Sani said the team had informal meetings with Prabowo team members and they had all agreed to refrain from making “inciting” statements.

He added that Jokowi had long sought to meet Prabowo to ease tensions but that a meeting had not yet materialized because of timing issues on Prabowo’s part.

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