SBY Explains Ethics and Importance of Accepting Electoral Losses

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Democrat Party chairman Susilo “SBY” Bambang Yudhoyono said that his party highly upholds the value and ethics of accepting losses in an election, which he says is evident in congratulating the victor.

“Before the Democrat Party was founded, I lost in the first round of the 2001 presidential election. Just hours following [the election result], accompanied by Ibu Ani, I publically announced that I accepted the defeat,” said the sixth Indonesian president in a video on Monday, May 27.

He also recalled congratulating the named vice presidential candidate and called for constituents to support the elected vice president.

SBY also retold his past response to the 2014 legislative election where he congratulated the three political parties that obtained more votes than the Democratic Party.

Read: SBY: Jokowi - Prabowo Meeting Must be Realized Soon

“AHY (Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono) is one of Democrat’s member that shares the same ethics and value, following the Jakarta Gubernatorial election quick count results, he immediately accepted his loss after he called the winners to congratulate them,” said SBY.

The same must be applied in the 2019 general elections, he said, where people must accept the results even though he stressed that this year’s election lacked the ‘fair play.’

However, the Democrat Party also asserts that it supports the path of legislative candidates in taking election disputes to the Constitutional Court and comprehensively evaluate the 2019 general elections which he deems important for an improved 2024 election.

ANTARA