The Constitutional Court slammed shut on Thursday the last chance for presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto to overturn April’s election result, which saw victory handed to incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

After almost two weeks of examination, the bench of nine justices rejected in its entirety Prabowo’s legal challenge, saying that the arguments in his petition lacked evidence.

“The court rejects all of the plaintiffs’ claims,” Chief Justice Anwar Usman stated after the panel of nine justices had spent almost eight hours reading out their ruling.

Anwar added that the decision was final and had been unanimously signed by all justices on the panel.

The court’s decision upholds the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) final vote tally, which declared incumbent Jokowi and running mate Ma’ruf Amin the winners of the election.

The incumbent secured 55.5 percent of the vote while Prabowo and Sandiaga Uno garnered 44.5 percent, according to the KPU.

The justices said the plaintiffs had failed to present valid evidence to back up their allegations of widespread voter fraud and had failed to elaborate clearly how the alleged vote-rigging attempts were related to the vote tally secured by each presidential candidate.

All allegations, ranging from alleged involvement of state apparatuses in rallying Jokowi support to accusations that the KPU had inflated the Jokowi-Ma’ruf vote tally by about 22 million votes, were rejected by the panel of nine justices who argued that claims were “legally baseless”.

The justices argued that the plaintiffs lacked evidence to support their claims, including backing up their own vote tally, in which the Prabowo camp claimed to have won the election with 52 percent of the vote against Jokowi-Ma’ruf’s 48 percent.

“The plaintiffs cannot prove [their version of the] vote tally was based on legitimate tally forms from all polling stations, and therefore, the Constitutional Court deems the argument legally baseless,” Justice Arief Hidayat said.

For weeks after voting concluded on April 17, following a seven-month politically divisive election season, Prabowo had claimed himself the rightful winner of the election and persistently refused to accept defeat.

His camp accused the KPU and the Jokowi camp of electoral fraud, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the incumbent’s reelection victory, leading thousands of Prabowo supporters to take to the streets after the KPU announced the final vote tally in late May.

The initially peaceful protests escalated into full-fledged riots and two nights of civil unrest in the capital that saw clashes between rioters and security forces, leading to the deaths of at least nine people and hundreds of others being injured.

Prabowo finally conceded defeat shortly after the court read out the final ruling, saying that he respected the court’s decision and surrendered “the final truth to God”, although he conceded that he was still disappointed by the result.

“We won’t stop fighting for our goals, for the nation. We still can fight for it in the legislature or another forum. We will consolidate as we already have the real support of the people,” Prabowo said at his residence in Kertanegara, South Jakarta.

Thursday saw history repeating itself for Prabowo as it marked the second time that he had failed in a challenge to a Jokowi electoral victory at the court.

In 2014, Prabowo and his running mate Hatta Rajasa appealed against Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla’s election victory in the court, but the petition was subsequently rejected as the panel of justices — led by former chief justice Hamdan Zoelva at the time — found insufficient evidence to prove their allegations of widespread electoral fraud.

Prabowo said that he would still discuss with his legal team whether or not there were other possible legal avenues to be taken. The opposition leader did not congratulate Jokowi in his speech.

“Even though we understand that the decision is very disappointing for us, we will abide [by it] and follow our Constitution and the legal system in our country. We respect the court’s ruling. We rely on God for truth and justice,” he said.

He called on his supporters to remain calm and work toward national unity. “We must look to the children of the nation as our own brothers,” he said.

Separately, Jokowi and Ma’ruf — who delivered their speech at the Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in East Jakarta — called for the nation to unite following the court’s decision. “Now there is no longer 01 and 02,” Jokowi said, referring to the presidential candidates’ ballot numbers. “There is only the unity of Indonesia.”

Jokowi initially planned to make a speech in response to the court’s ruling at Ma’ruf’s residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, but the pair decided to deliver their address in Halim because the President had to depart for Osaka, Japan on Thursday evening to attend the two-day Group of 20 Summit starting on Friday.

“I also believe in the magnanimity and statesmanship of my good friends Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno,” Jokowi said. “They both share my vision of a better, more just and more advanced Indonesia.”

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