Democrat Refrains from May 22 Election Protest

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Democrat Party secretary-general Hinca Panjaitan asserted its party members would not join the upcoming protest on May 22 that many deemed as a “people power” movement against the presidential election results.

The Democrat assured that it would abide by the existing procedures regarding the 2019 presidential election results that will be announced by the General Election Commission (KPU).

“The Democrat Party will adhere to the constitutional route,” Hinca told Tempo on Monday.

He added the Democrat, however, was supportive of the report filed by the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga campaign team (BPN) to the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) on alleged structured, systematic and massive fraud besetting the elections.

“We will accept and respect whatever the verdict may be this noon,” said Hinca. 

Read: Democrat`s Andi Arief on Prabowo`s Vote Count Result Boycott

In an adjudication trial held earlier today, the Bawaslu deemed the report and pieces of evidence that were presented by Prabowo’s BPN team were insufficient. “We determine and state that the report of an alleged administrative violation cannot be accepted,” said Bawaslu chairman Abhan at his headquarters in Central Jakarta on Monday, May 20.

In its deliberation, the Bawaslu asserted that the evidentiary items such as online media news links could not stand alone as pieces of evidence of a systematic presidential election fraud and that it did not fulfill the required quality of evidence mentioned in a statutory reporting provision.

“Not one piece of evidence shows any conduct that suggests [the electoral fraud was] meticulously planned,” said Bawaslu commissioner Rahmad Bagja in the deliberation.

IRSYAN HASYIM (CONTRIBUTOR)