Prabowo Makes Third Election Victory Claim, While Foreign Leaders Congratulate Jokowi
Jakarta. Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto again declared victory on Thursday afternoon – his third time since the April 17 election.
Prabowo, accompanied by his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, said his decision was based on data his campaign team had gathered across Indonesia.
"Today, I, Prabowo Subianto, and Sandiaga Uno declare victory as president and vice president of the Republic of Indonesia for the period 2019 to 2024," the former Army general said during a press conference at his family's residence in South Jakarta.
Sandiaga, wearing a dark-blue golf shirt, stood beside Prabowo. He seemed uncomfortable and did not make any comments.
"We declare victory, based on our real count," which suggests a Prabowo-Sandiaga win of more than 62 percent, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) chairman said.
The latest victory declaration followed comments Prabowo made in Sandiaga's absence on Wednesday night, when he announced to have won the election by 52 percent of the vote. He reportedly expressed his gratitude to God for his "victory" by bowing to the ground.
On Thursday, he repeated his call on supporters to continue monitoring polling stations and guard the vote-counting process.
According to a message widely distributed by Prabowo supporters on WhatsApp and social media, a mass gathering to celebrate the pair's victory is scheduled for Friday evening.
This is despite quick-count data compiled by dozens of pollsters registered with the General Elections Commission (KPU), showing that his opponents, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his running mate, Ma'ruf Amin, had won the election by between 54 percent and 56 percent of the vote.
However, Prabowo told his supporters to not trust quick-count results.
The KPU, which organized this week's simultaneous presidential and legislative elections, is scheduled to complete the official count by May 22. As of Thursday evening, the agency had just counted 1 percent of the votes.
Foreign Leaders Congratulate Jokowi
While Prabowo was claiming victory, Jokowi reportedly received congratulatory calls from at least 21 foreign leaders, including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong.
"Thank you; thank you PM Lee," Jokowi tells the Singaporean prime minister on the phone in a 20-second video published by Detik.com.
Separately on Thursday afternoon, Jokowi and Ma'ruf met with the leaders of their coalition partners in Central Jakarta.
"We all know that the quick count is based on a scientific calculation, which during the last election, [in 2014], was 99 percent accurate," Jokowi told media representatives after the meeting.
Though a dozen quick counts favor Jokowi, he repeated his call on supporters to remain patient and wait for the KPU to announce the official result.
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