Jakarta
\nIndonesian presidential election challenger Anies Baswedan filed a complaint to the country\u2019s Constitutional Court on Thursday contesting Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto\u2019s decisive win after allegations of irregularities and fraud.
\nPrabowo, 72, was confirmed as the next leader of the world\u2019s third-biggest democracy on Wednesday, beating former Jakarta governor Anies and a third rival with 58.6 percent of the vote — enough to secure a first-round majority.
\nBut the campaign was mired in allegations that outgoing leader Joko Widodo, more popularly known as Jokowi, had interfered in a bid to establish a political dynasty, as his eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka ran as Prabowo\u2019s vice president.
\n\u201cWe officially submitted the request for an election dispute petition to the Constitutional Court,\u201d Anies\u2019s legal chief Ari Yusuf Amir told reporters outside their campaign headquarters.
\n\u201cEarlier this morning at 1:00 am (1800 GMT Wednesday), we submitted the registration online, and currently our team is at the Constitutional Court processing the administrative requirements.\u201d
\nAnies\u2019s team has said the aim of the complaint is to improve future elections and Indonesia\u2019s young democracy, which emerged from decades of autocratic rule in the late 1990s.
\nJokowi was criticized after his brother-in-law, then-chief justice Anwar Usman, issued an October ruling lowering the age requirements for presidential and vice presidential candidates that allowed Gibran to run with Prabowo.
\nAnies — who got 24.9 percent of the vote — refused to concede after official results were announced Wednesday, condemning the winner\u2019s route to victory.
\n\u201cLeadership that was born out of a process tainted by cheating and violations will result in a regime that will produce policies that are full of unfairness, and we don\u2019t want this to happen,\u201d he said in a statement.
\nAnies\u2019s running mate Muhaimin Iskandar said Wednesday evening that alleged irregularities included \u201cregulatory engineering to the intervention of state apparatuses\u201d.
\nPrabowo was widely predicted to win the presidency on his third attempt after losing in 2014 and 2019.
\nHis legal team was confident the result would not be successfully challenged because of his majority and wide margin of victory, local media reported.
\nOfficials from his campaign team did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
\nHe takes over in October after a transition period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jakarta Indonesian presidential election challenger Anies Baswedan filed a complaint to the country\u2019s Constitutional Court on Thursday contesting Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto\u2019s decisive win after allegations of irregularities and fraud. Prabowo, 72, was confirmed as the next leader of the world\u2019s third-biggest democracy on Wednesday, beating former Jakarta governor Anies and a third rival with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-395483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n