Indonesia Election: Prabowo Formally Declared President-Elect After Court Rejects Legal Challenges

04/25/2024

Indonesia’s electoral commission has formally declared Prabowo Subianto president-elect in a ceremony, after the country’s highest court rejected challenges to his win by rival candidates.

Prabowo, 72, a former general dogged by allegations of human rights abuses, won a landslide victory in February’s elections, but his two opponents claimed that the vote had been undermined by state interference and unfair rule changes.

Prabowo won 58.6 percent of the vote in February’s election, but is a controversial figure. A former son-in-law of Suharto and a special commander under his 32-year regime, he has been accused of involvement in past rights abuses, including enforced disappearances of student activists and torture during the Suharto era. Prabowo was discharged from the military over the allegations and banned from entering the US for two decades.

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