Indonesian highest court upholds election result

The Indonesian Constitutional Court on August 21 upheld last month's presidential election result, paving the way for Joko Widodo to become the next leader of the Southeast Asian country.
The Indonesian Constitutional Court on August 21 upheld last month'spresidential election result, paving the way for Joko Widodo to becomethe next leader of the Southeast Asian country.

Thecourt also rejected a last-ditch attempt by losing candidate PrabowoSubianto to overturn the election result that he claimed electoralfraud.

The verdict cannot be appealed as all ninemembers of the judging panel refuted the whole legal challenge filed bythe petitioner, Court Chief Hamdan Zoelfa said.

Right before the opening of the hearing, thousands of Prabowo-supportprotesters made a rally near the court and broke security fences,forcing police to use tear gas and water cannon to disperse them.

Local authorities said about 50,000 police and soldiers were mobilisedto ensure safety in many places in Jakarta in case of riot.

Earlier last month, the Indonesia ’s General Election Commissiondeclared Widodo the victor of the presidential election with nearly 8.5votes or 53 percent of the total.

In a recentspeech, Widodo said he will build a new cabinet with better operationalefficiency, focusing on boosting agricultural and aquatic production,reviving traditional market, bringing new blood to creative economy andimproving access to high quality education and health care services.

Widodo will begin his five-year term on October 20.-VNA

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