Indonesian court hears Wiranto's presidential election dispute case - Does he have a chance at overturning results?

Producer: Bharati Jagdish
First broadcast: 3 August 04, Radio Singapore International

Lawyers for Indonesia's first-round presidential candidate, Wiranto, have demanded that Indonesia's highest court award him one of the two spots in the presidential election runoff next month.

They say that former general, Wiranto who finished third in the voting on July 5th, should replace second-place candidate, Megawati Sukarnoputri because polling irregularities were to blame for his poor showing.

Lawyers for the Indonesian Election Commission or KPU say that Wiranto's appeal which the Constitutional Court began hearing on Monday, was "bewildering" and littered with inaccuracies.

They also noted that it contained no statements from any witnesses.

Wiranto was trailing Megawati by about 4 percent of the vote.

He claims that he had about 5 million votes more than the election commission's tally.

However, international and domestic monitors have stated that Indonesia's first presidential election by direct balloting was free and fair.

Most analysts say that his court challenge is unlikely to succeed, but voters and politicians alike are closely watching the proceedings.

For more on this, Bharati Jagdish spoke to political observer, Andi Malaranggeng (AM) from the Institute for Government Studies in Jakarta.

AM: "Everybody understands that there's a very slim chance for Wiranto to prove his claim about the 5 million votes because all other results of the vote count including the quick-count and the KPU manual system prove that Wiranto is indeed in third place with about 3, 4 or 5 million votes less than Megawati."

Some analysts say Indonesia's legal system has a reputation for handing down unexpected verdicts and there have been allegations of bribery within the judiciary in the past so Wiranto could ultimately get his way. What's your perspective on this?

AM: "That's why some people are really worried and they're following this very closely and all other representatives of the other presidential candidates are also following the process closely, especially Megawati's camp. Her lawyer is actually sitting in on the court proceedings and it seems he too has a right to speak in the process. So most people are watching it closely."

Lawyers for the election commission have said that Wiranto's appeal in the Constitutional Court was littered with inaccuracies. Based on what you know, what's your opinion on his allegations?

AM: "I got some information from the KPU people that his allegations are not supported by any proof. There's no proof to show that there was a mistake in the counting which could have cost him 5 million votes."

Although analysts say that Wiranto has a slim chance of winning his court appeal, what would be the larger political implications if he does win?

AM: "The problem with this process is that people are just preparing themselves for the worst-case scenario - that Wiranto will get his way. If that really happens, then Megawati will not be in the second round and her supporters could make things really ugly. There's a very, very slim chance that Wiranto could win the appeal, but the court system in Indonesia is sometimes worrisome. We're hoping that this Constitutional Court could prove itself to be worthy."

Now where is Golkar, Wiranto's party, in all of this? Has the party made any public statements to support his claims?

AM: "Amazingly, no. Akbar Tandjung (Golkar party leader) has been backing Megawati since the elections ended. They want to form a coalition for the next round. Even Golkar's count of the votes puts Wiranto in third position, so I think they're not really eager to support this claim."

So Golkar just wants to move on and concentrate on its strategy for the next round?

AM: "They have to somehow move forward and look to the second round election rather than just get bogged down with this legal process."

Wiranto has also filed a separate appeal to the Supreme Court in which he alleges that there were inconsistencies on one particular occasion when millions of votes had to be recounted because they were punched twice and were deemed invalid. How's that case going?

AM: "In my opinion the decision of the KPU to recount those votes may have been problematic, but even I feel that even if this particular problem had not occurred to begin with, or if the Supreme Court rules in Wiranto's favour, it would not really make a difference to the final result in terms of percentages."