By Ainur Romah
JAKARTA, Indonesia
Indonesia's Constitutional Court has thrown out a challenge from losing presidential election candidate Prabowo Subianto, paving the way for Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to be inaugurated as the country's next president.
"Rejecting the entire applicant's lawsuit," announced court chairman Hamdan Zoelva late Thursday, adding that all nine judges were in complete agreement.
The decision means that the 53-year-old everyman Jokowi and his running mate Jusuf Kalla will be officially named president and vice President in September when incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono steps down after reaching the two-term limit.
Zoelva had earlier said that the decision of the court is final and binding, Subianto's camp previously saying that the ruling would not end his efforts to vindicate himself.
Clashes between police and protesters broke out earlier in the day as crowds gathered outside the Jakarta courthouse awaiting the ruling.
Local TV reported that police had fired tear gas and water cannons to stop supporters of losing candidate ex-general Subianto getting past a barbed wire fence that was blocking a road to the courthouse.
According to the Metro TV report, two people were injured after being beaten by officers with their batons, while a journalist was also hurt. A police report later indicated that 46 others had been treated at local hospitals.
Compass.com reported that at one point police fired their guns into the air to disperse protesters throwing stones, but after re-gathering - some of them bleeding from head wounds - the Subianto supporters returned to the site of the demonstration.
The suit - filed by Subianto - claimed Jokowi's win was "legally invalid" because it was obtained "unlawfully" or through "abuse of authority" by the country's election commission.
Court documents from Subianto's team submitted on the first day of the hearing had questioned the validity of 2.7 million votes.
They issued their own version of the results that put Jokowi on 66.44 million votes, or 49.74 percent, and claimed that Subianto was victorious with more than 67.14 million, or 50.25 percent.
The General Elections Commission announced July 9 that Jokowi had 70.99 million votes or 53.15 percent, and Subianto had 62.57 million votes or 46.85 percent.
Subianto's lawyer argued that poll officials -- themselves -- had inflated Jokowi's results.
Subianto -- reported to model himself on the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk -- is a businessman and heavily decorated lieutenant general, having headed the country's oppressive special forces under General Suharto, while Jokowi -- who resigned his post as mayor of Indonesia's capital city Jakarta to run for president -- is a one time little-known furniture retailer, whose stock began to rise in 2005 when he became the mayor of the central Javanese city of Solo.
In the past few months, questions were raised in the nation's press about Jokowi's ethnicity, race and religion, along with allegations of corruption. One report even went as far as to claim he had died.
Subianto, meanwhile, had been accused of gross human rights violations when he was head of the Indonesian Special Forces, including the kidnapping of students in the last days of General Suharto's regime.
Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim nation - was a military dictatorship until 16 years ago, governed by former president and dictator Suharto.
Jokowi is the first president to come from outside the country's tightly knit elite, although the chair of his Democratic Party of Struggle is Megawati Sukarnoputri - the country's first female president and daughter of the country's first president, Sukarno.
Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.
