In a last-ditch effort to overturn the result of the presidential election in his favor, opposition leader Prabowo Subianto officially challenged on Friday the final vote tally by the General Elections Commission (KPU) — which has placed President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as the winner — at the Constitutional Court.

The legal step taken by the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno candidate pair came amid escalating tension between the two rival camps following street protests by Prabowo supporters that led to rioting in some parts of Jakarta, killing at least eight people and injuring hundreds of others.

Prabowo’s legal representatives led by Bambang Widjojanto and brother Hashim Djojohadikusomo went to the Constitutional Court at 10:37 p.m., less than two hours before the deadline.

In 2010, Bambang, a former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioner, reportedly scored a victory at the court while representing a regent candidate who lost the election by a margin of nearly 10 percent.

Bambang’s team consists of top legal experts: former law and human rights deputy minister Denny Indrayana, constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin and top lawyer Rikrik Rizkiyana.

Sandiaga said his camp had decided to challenge the KPU’s vote tally to express the disappointment and concerns of the people regarding the recent election, which he said was tainted by fraud.

“It’s very hard to say that our election went well and fairly,” Sandiaga said as quoted by Antara news agency on Friday. “We have received many reports from members of the public who witnessed and experienced injustice during the election.”

The Prabowo-Sandiaga campaign has accused the KPU of “structurally, systematically and massively” rigging the election in favor of the incumbent.

Among the cases of fraud the camp reported to the Constitutional Court included alleged money politics, the use of precast ballots to cheat in the elections as well as 17.5 million problematic names on the voter list, Prabowo campaign team spokesman Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak said.

The court is expected to announce the hearing schedule on June 11. The parties involved in the case should respond on June 12.

The pretrial hearing will be held on June 14, while the full sessions will be held from June 17 to 21. The court will hold a meeting to deliberate the case between June 24 and June 27 and deliver its ruling on June 28.

KPU secretary-general Arif Rahman Hakim said the commission had made detailed preparations to face the disputes over election results, including preparing six groups of lawyers to handle presidential and legislative election dispute cases.

“[The KPU] will look into the [election dispute] petitions with the team of lawyers from May 25 to 27,” Arif said.

The final KPU tally showed that Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin secured 85 million votes (55.5 percent), while Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno garnered 68 million votes (44.5 percent). The figures are pretty much in line with the results of quick counts conducted by reputable pollsters on election day.

Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) director Titi Anggraini said Prabowo’s chance of succesfully challenging the election result — which showed a gap of 17 million votes between him and Jokowi — was slim if he submitted the same evidence to the court as the camp had previously submitted to the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).

“[The number of votes] that they are challenging is high […] They should submit different pieces of evidence and narratives to the court and the public as well. The current narrative is still unclear.”

She said there were indeed cases of electoral fraud in several areas, but it would be difficult to prove that they were “structural, systematic and massive” as the Prabowo camp had claimed.

On May 20, Bawaslu rejected a report filed by the Prabowo-Sandiaga campaign accusing the incumbent candidate of buying the votes of civil servants, citing a lack of evidence.

Bawaslu commissioner Rahmat Bagja said fraud would need to have occurred in 50 percent of provinces in Indonesia, or 17 provinces, to be considered “structural, systematic and massive”.

In 2014, Prabowo also challenged the election result at the Constitutional Court but lost the battle. The Prabowo camp had initially said they no longer trusted the court, but then decided to turn to the court anyway after the KPU’s announcement.

Prabowo’s decision has drawn appreciation from many national figures, including Jokowi himself, who has expressed his appreciation for his rival’s decision.

The Jokowi-Ma’ruf campaign team has prepared a team of lawyers led by former law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra to counter the arguments posed by the Prabowo camp.

On Thursday evening, Vice President Jusuf Kalla gathered the nation’s top figures in his residence, including Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Said Aqil Siradj, Muhammadiyah chairman Haedar Nasir and National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) Governor Agus Widjojo, to discuss the post election tensions.

“We remain optimistic and hope that the people will exercise democracy peacefully,” Kalla said after the meeting, “We are hoping that the protesters will also wait for the Constitutional Court’s ruling [on the election dispute] because we have heard their aspirations.”

Kalla had also held a closed-door meeting with Prabowo on Thursday, Jokowi confirmed, adding that it was initiated by the Vice President and himself, although Jokowi claimed he did not yet know the subject of discussion between Kalla and Prabowo.

The incumbent went on to express his hope of meeting with Prabowo soon, hoping that the meeting would be seen positively by the people and be able “to cool things down” since it could send signals that there was no problem among the political elites of the country.

“If the elites are harmonious and are getting along well, the people will also stay cool and calm,” Jokowi said on Friday.

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