Crucially, the loser in this prolonged fight won’t necessarily be Trump, president-elect Joe Biden nor the US public still awaiting the final results, but rather democracy itself as political observers voiced concerns that this messy episode in US politics may set a bad precedent for other democratic countries, including Indonesia.

News agencies and networks projected a win for Biden in the states of Pennsylvania and Nevada in Saturday’s vote count, handing him enough electoral votes to surpass the 270 needed to win the grueling race to the White House and pass the margin for error.

Observing outlets “call” the winner in a state when they determine that the trailing candidate no longer has a path to victory, based on the available data on voter turnout.

Votes in three US states, mostly mail-delivered, are still being counted, and it could take weeks before the official tally is announced. But the Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in various states and peddled baseless claims about voter fraud and the incumbent’s supposed victory, agencies have reported.

Read also: US allies greet Biden as next president despite Trump refusal to concede

Such “delusion”, as one bewildered US journalist put it, as well as the “populist playbook” that Trump used throughout his term, could leave a stain on democracy, experts feared.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, cofounder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia, said the developments in the US – long considered a champion of democracy – could send a ripple effect to other countries.

“If the US [is allowed to] return to an era where racism is more widespread, police violence against black people has increased or hate speech is allowed and even seems to be endorsed by the president, it would have a bad impact on other countries who are developing democracy,” Dewi told The Jakarta Post earlier this week.

“Those who oppose democracy can easily point to America.”

Trump’s tactics have already elicited bemused responses from Indonesia’s netizens, with social media users pointing to similarities in former presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto’s premature claim to victory in the 2014 Indonesian elections. The result was a country divided in politics, in some cases splitting families apart, before the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo administration wrestled control and Prabowo was eventually invited into the cabinet.

Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) researcher Andrew Mantong said politicians in other countries could look to Trump’s populist approach to tap into the growing frustration of its electorates.

“The playbook could inspire other politicians to become more populist, not only in Indonesia but other developed and developing democracies that have a multicultural society,” Andrew told the Post on Friday.

He noted Indonesia’s own problems with deep-seated and inward-looking nationalism, as well as the contentious politics stemming from a series of regional elections in 2017 onward that provided fertile ground for politicians to use populist rhetoric to garner support.

Read also: ‘New old friend’: Indonesia upbeat on US ties, regardless of election winner

In its 2020 Freedom in the World report, US-based think tank Freedom House pointed out that attempts to undermine values of democracy, human rights and freedoms in the US could be exploited by actors in other countries.

“Fierce rhetorical attacks on the press, the rule of law and other pillars of democracy coming from American leaders, including the president himself, undermine the country’s ability to persuade other governments to defend core human rights and freedoms, and are actively exploited by dictators and demagogues,” according to the report, which assessed last year’s developments.

These fears are especially palpable in the realm of electoral politics as Indonesia gears up for simultaneous regional elections next month.

A member of the Association of Elections and Democracy’s (Perludem) advisory board, Titi Anggraini, said developments in the US were an implication of political polarization, which does not bode well for the development of democracy.

“In the post-truth era, emotions are becoming more dominant in determining voters’ choices. This is a great threat to global democratic practices as such tendencies could be found in other countries, including in Indonesia last year, the Philippines and in some European nations,” Titi said on Friday.

“The tyranny of the majority that is based on identity could harm the meaning of democracy.”

Read also: Indonesian workers and student want Biden

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political analyst Firman Noor said that while parallels between the US and Indonesia can be drawn, Indonesia has a robust legal system in place to settle disputes.

“Indonesia already has enough legal, formal and constitutional [mechanisms] to settle post-election conflict,” he said.

Hadar Nafis Gumay, a former election organizer and cofounder of the Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (Netgrit), said, however, that there are many lessons Indonesia could still glean from the US election, especially as the nation prepares to hold the Dec. 9 polls in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.

“We can learn the importance of truly counting the votes,” said Hadar. “All ballots must be counted as long as they are cast in accordance with the regulations.”

The use of technology in the US election, which had been prepared thoroughly to ensure every voter can cast their ballot, is another valuable lesson that Indonesian election organizers could learn, he said.

The Indonesian government has insisted on going through with the elections, despite the high number of infections still being reported nationwide. The General Elections Commission was contacted for comment but has not replied as of the time of writing.

– Dian Septiari contributed to the article.

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