PAN, Democratic Party Will Not Join Mass Protest Against Election Results
Jakarta. Two of the parties that support presidential candidate pair Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno will refrain from participating in mass protests and seek to resolve allegations of electoral fraud and dissatisfaction with the results through constitutional means.
Bara Hasibuan, deputy chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), said they would respect the official results of the presidential and legislative elections, set to be announced Wednesday.
"PAN is ready to accept whatever the results are, as conveyed by our chairman [Zulkifli Hasan] last night," Bara said in Jakarta on Monday. He added that the party would seek to resolve any election-related disputes, including those involving its legislative candidates, through legal channels.
The legislative candidate for the North Sulawesi electoral district also called on all stakeholders to recognize state institutions, including the Constitutional Court, that are legally mandated to resolve election disputes.
"PAN will follow every mechanism that is constitutional," he emphasized.
End of Democratic Party Support for Prabowo?
An official of the Democratic Party, founded by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, made a similar comment about not participating in the planned protest action.
"I confirm that the Democratic Party will not join the People's Sovereignty Movement, previously called 'people power,'" the party's secretary general, Hinca Panjaitan, said at the offices of the General Elections Commission (KPU) in Central Jakarta on Monday.
He was referring to Amien Rais, an Islamic scholar-turned-politician and one of the Prabowo-Sandiaga camp's key supporters, who declared last week that the term "people power," used to refer to a planned rally in Jakarta similar to those that toppled President Suharto's authoritarian New Order regime in 1998, had been changed to "People's Sovereignty Movement."
The government has started to adopt a tougher stance against anyone believed to be provoking the public to attend Wednesday's planned rally in Central Jakarta.
Hinca said his party's support for Prabowo-Sandiaga will end with the announcement of the election results.
"I am affirming that the Democrats will remain with candidate pair No. 2 up until May 22," Hinca said, referring to Prabowo-Sandiaga's position on the ballot paper.
Just like PAN, the Democratic Party also hopes to resolve any irregularities in this year's elections through constitutional means. Hinca said the party acknowledges that the Constitutional Court is the right channel for this, as mandated by the 1945 Constitution.
As of Monday afternoon, with 91.09 percent of the ballots counted, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Ma'ruf Amin were leading with 55.6 percent of the vote, compared with Prabowo-Sandiaga's 44.4 percent.
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