Indonesian Constitutional Court Rejects Prabowo Subianto’s Election Challenge
It took about six hours for Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) to read out the lengthy 300-page verdict in the case that was filed by defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who claimed that the result of Indonesia’s July 2014 presidential election was invalid due to large-scale violations and fraud that allegedly occurred during the voting and counting processes. During the read out it became increasingly clear that the Constitutional Court would reject Subianto’s claims due to a lack of evidence.
There were reports of some clashes between Subianto supporters and the Indonesian police force around the Constitutional Court building in Central Jakarta during the court's read out, resulting in about a dozen of injured people. The police fired tear gas and used water cannons to keep the supporters at a safe distance from the building. It is estimated that a couple of thousand Subianto supporters gathered in Central Jakarta.