Indonesia's front-runner presidential candidate and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto gestures as he delivers his speech after the country's election commission announced last month's presidential election result, in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 20, 2024. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/ File Photo
JAKARTA (Reuters) -The legal team of Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto denied on Thursday the state had interfered in last month's elections and said an attempt by the losing candidates to disqualify Prabowo goes against the choice of the people.
Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan on Wednesday challenged Prabowo's resounding victory in last month's presidential election in the Constitutional Court, claiming state interference in the poll and calling for his disqualification. They also called for another election.
Otto Hasibuan, one of the lawyers on Prabowo's legal team, told the court that there had been no violations or interference by President Joko Widodo or state institutions to sway the outcome of the Feb. 14 election.
The legal team also called on the court to dismiss the case.
"These calls for re-election, disqualification, potentially trigger other problems that will lead to constitutional crisis," Otto told the court.
Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, has been accused of favoring his once bitter rival Prabowo, who was running with the president's son Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Both were officially announced as the winners of the election last week.
The losing candidates' teams have also called for Gibran to be disqualified as a vice presidential candidate, and more than 300 academics and activists on Thursday submitted a legal opinion to the court arguing that his candidacy was problematic, according to media reports.
Challenges to election outcomes are not unusual in Indonesia and the court is expected to make a decision on April 22.
(Additional reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Ananda Teresia; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Miral Fahmy)
