Prabowo supporters trust KPU more than him

JAYAPURA. Amid growing public disillusionment with the statesmanship of the losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, one of his trusted confidantes has openly declared he will use street justice to punish General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Husni Kamil Malik.

Muhammad Taufik, who was previously sentenced by the Central Jakarta Court to 18 months in prison for graft, warned the police that Prabowo’s supporters would take the law into their own hands if the police failed to abide by his demand for them to arrest Husni for committing election fraud.

Taufik, the chairman of the Jakarta branch of Prabowo’s Gerindra Party, said he would deploy tens of thousands of supporters from various regions to stage demonstrations outside the Constitutional Court, where the third hearing of Prabowo’s lawsuit will be held on Monday.

“Do not blame us [for arresting Husni] if law enforcers do not enforce the law immediately,” said Taufik, who was jailed in 2006 for engaging in corruption in his position as the head of the Jakarta General Elections Commision (KPUD).

Prabowo’s camp will present dozens of witnesses before the court on Monday in support of his claim that democracy is much stronger in North Korea than it is in Indonesia, the world’s third-largest
democracy.

Justices in the court were largely unconvinced on Friday, however, about the reliability of testimony or the honesty and knowledge of witnesses about vote-rigging allegations.

Meanwhile, survey by a major pollster has revealed that a majority of Prabowo’s supporters say that the July 9 presidential election was fully in line with democratic principles, and was fair and free.

The supporters have more faith in the KPU than they have in Prabowo’s claim that massive and systemic vote rigging occurred in the election.

The national survey, of 1,041 citizens, was released by the Saiful Mujani Research Center (SMRC) on Sunday and showed that around 48 percent of Prabowo’s supporters and 51 percent of supporters of his rival, president-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, believe the election was free and fair. Overall, 78 percent of respondents felt the election was well-run.

The survey was conducted from July 21 to 26 with a margin of error of 2.9 percent. The survey found 11 percent of respondents thought there was a degree of fraud but that the election was nonetheless fair.

“Even 48 percent of Gerindra members in the survey said that the election was fair,” Djayadi Hanan, research director at the SMRC, told reporters in Jakarta on Sunday.

Only around 2 percent of respondents in total said that the election was overwhelmingly marred by fraud and vote rigging, with only 4 percent of Prabowo’s supporters believing this, the survey said.

Djayadi explained that by Prabowo placing himself among this 2 percent his approach could backfire if he did not carefully plan his strategy to gain people’s sympathy.

“People trust the KPU and the election result,” Djajadi added.

Meanwhile, president-elect Jokowi is continuing preparations to lead the country after his swearing-in ceremony on Oct. 20. (ask)