Prabowo legal team rebuffs bid to disqualify him

The legal team of Indonesia’s president-elect Prabowo Subianto said yesterday the losing presidential candidates’ bid in the country’s top court to disqualify him would negate the people’s right to vote.

Losing candidates Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan on Wednesday challenged Prabowo’s victory in last month’s presidential election in the Constitutional Court, claiming state interference in the polls and calling for his disqualification.

Otto Hasibuan, one of the lawyers on Prabowo’s legal team, said in court there were no violations during the Feb 14 election and that administrative complaints should be handled by the election watchdog rather than the Constitutional Court.

Prabowo and his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of outgoing President Joko Widodo, were officially announced as election winners by the national poll body last week.

The losing candidates’ legal teams also called for Gibran to be disqualified as a vice-presidential candidate.

Also, Indonesia’s parliament yesterday designated special status for Jakarta, keeping the metropolis as the country’s economic epicentre, amid plans to move the capital city to Borneo island.

Indonesia plans to move its capital city away from congested and sinking Jakarta, to Nusantara, a US$32-billion (RM151.45 billion) city under construction in the jungles of East Kalimantan.

The city is a flagship project of Joko Widodo, who pledged to redistribute wealth and development concentrated in Java, across the archipelago.

An “agglomeration” council will be created to harmonise development plans between Jakarta and its satellite cities, according to a copy of the new law dated March 18.

Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian said after deliberations in parliament that Jakarta should still be developed to compete with other “world-class cities” once the seat of government has been moved to Nusantara.

“After it’s no longer a capital, it still has to be sealed with a special status so that it can accelerate economic growth and to increase contribution to the country’s GDP,” he said.

Jakarta will remain Indonesia’s capital until the president issues a decree officially naming Nusantara as the new capital, which is expected sometime this year.

The government is expected to hold 2024’s independence day ceremony on Aug 17 in Nusantara and thousands of civil servants are expected to move there by end of this year. – Reuters