Indonesia: 6 dead, 200 injured in protests against presidential election results
At least six people were dead and 200 were injured as protests by supporters of a failed presidential candidate turned violent Wednesday in the Indonesian capital, authorities said.
National Police spokesman Mohammad Iqba told reporters that 58 people had been arrested in connection to the riot.
Protests erupted in Jakarta following Tuesday’s surprise announcement by Indonesia’s General Elections Commission, known as the KPU, that Joko Widodo had beat out Prabowo Subinato to secure a second term as president.
The commission said Widodo, 57, had won 55.5 percent of the April 17 vote to 67-year-old Subinato’s 44.5 percent.
Subinato said following the announcement that he rejected the result, saying the vote was rigged. He then called for supports to continue with protests that had been scheduled for Wednesday.
Following the announcement of the results Tuesday, some 2,000 people staged a sit-in outside the Election Supervisory Board, with most of them having left by 10 p.m. as instructed by police, the Straits Times reported.
Central Jakarta Deputy Police Chief Aria Ardian said he had ordered protesters who had remained out front of the Election Supervisory Board three times to disperse before ordering anti-riot police to fire tear gas into the crowd in the early morning Wednesday.
Vehicles and a paramilitary police dormitory were set on fire during the night as police attempted to corral the situation with the use of rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons, the Telegraph reported.
Iqba said that the riot was “by design” as they had taken packets of money off those who were arrested.
He said 14 vehicles including three of the police were burned down in the night.
