Indonesia Court Set to Rule on Poll Challenge
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Indonesian police used tear gas and water cannon to break up a rally by supporters of the ex-general who lost last month's presidential election, as a court was set to uphold his opponent's victory.
As judges at the Constitutional Court started reading the lengthy verdict to Prabowo Subianto's challenge of an election won by Joko Widodo, which could take several hours, police responded to a rowdy crowd of his supporters with force.
Officers fired multiple volleys of tear gas and water cannon into the crowd, which was several hundred strong, after they earlier threw rocks and attempted to push past lines of riot police guarding the road to the court, which was closed off, reported the AFP news agency.
Some police chased supporters away and hit them with batons. It lasted only a few minutes and the crowd dispersed afterwards. An AFP reporter at the scene said one unconscious protester was carried into an ambulance.
Dalianto, a 57-year-old protester who like many Indonesians goes by one name, earlier said that he was showing his support for Prabowo as he was the "true president".
Independent analysts expect the nine-judge panel to reject Prabowo's challenge. The verdict cannot be appealed.
Both Prabowo, a top military figure in the era of dictator Suharto with a chequered human rights record, and Widodo, the reform-minded governor of Jakarta, declared victory at the July 9 election.
But official results released after a two-week count across the vast archipelago showed Widodo won a decisive, six-point victory after the hardest-fought, most polarising election since authoritarian rule ended in 1998.
The 53-year-old, who won legions of fans with his down-to-earth approach as Jakarta governor and is known by his nickname Jokowi, is the country's first leader from outside the political and military elites.
