Judges preside over a hearing on the Presidential election result dispute at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Four Indonesian Cabinet members testified on April 5 that no rules were violated in the distribution of government aid during the recent election campaign, despite claims by the two losing Presidential candidates that it was used for the benefit of the election winner.

Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto won the election with 58.6% of the votes, or more than 96 million ballots, more than twice the amount received by each of the two runner-ups in the three-way race, according to the General Election Commission.

The losing candidates — former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan and former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo — say the election was marred by irregularities and are asking the Constitutional Court to annul the results and order a revote in separate lawsuits.

They say Mr. Subianto’s victory was the result of widespread fraud and that outgoing President Joko Widodo and his administration bent laws and norms to support Mr. Subianto, with government social aid used as a tool to buy votes.

Indonesian Presidents are expected to remain neutral in elections to succeed them, but Mr. Subianto, a former rival of Mr. Widodo who twice lost elections to him before joining his government, ran as his successor. He even chose Mr. Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as his Vice-Presidential running mate, even though Mr. Raka did not meet a Constitutional requirement that candidates be at least 40 years old.

Mr. Baswedan and Mr. Pranowo argue that Mr. Raka should have been disqualified and are asking the court to bar him from a revote. Before the election, Mr. Raka was granted a controversial exception to the minimum age requirement by the Constitutional Court, which was then led by Anwar Usman, Mr. Widodo’s brother-in-law. Mr. Usman was later forced to resign as Chief Justice for failing to recuse himself.

Hefty social aid from the government was disbursed in the middle of the campaign — far more than the amounts spent during the COVID-19 pandemic — and Mr. Widodo distributed funds in person in a number of provinces.

A panel of eight Constitutional Court judges summoned Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy, Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini to obtain their dispositions, said Chief Justice Suhartoyo, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.

Mr. Effendy denied that the government aid provided from January to June 2024 favoured Mr. Subianto in the February Presidential election, and said it was dispersed to achieve a target of reducing extreme poverty.

Mr. Hartarto, who is also chair of the Golkar Party, part of the coalition supporting Mr. Subianto, said a decline in rice production caused by the El Niño phenomenon made the disbursement of social assistance important. He said the aid aimed to protect the poor and vulnerable from rising commodity prices due to El Niño and global supply chain disruptions.

“The government has to implement strategies to maintain the availability of food supplies and people’s purchasing power,” Mr. Hartarto said, adding that the programme was transparent and would continue to be implemented.

Widely respected Finance Minister Indrawati, a former managing director of the World Bank, said the aid was part of the government budget and had been approved by Parliament.

“Its realisation and payment pattern is no different compared to the previous six-year period,” Ms. Indrawati said. She said the enactment of the 2024 state budget was completed before the electoral commission announced the candidates in the Presidential race.

The case will be decided by eight justices instead of the full nine-member court because Mr. Usman, who is still on the court as an associate justice, is required to recuse himself.

Mr. Subianto himself went to the court twice to challenge the results of the elections he lost to Mr. Widodo, but the court rejected his claims as groundless both times. His refusal to accept the results of the 2019 Presidential election led to violence that left seven dead in Jakarta.

The hearing began on March 28 and the verdict, expected on April 22, cannot be appealed.

Presidential candidate Anies Baswedan. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Failed Indonesian presidential candidate Anies Baswedan challenged Prabowo Subianto’s decisive victory at the Constitutional Court on March 21, alleging rules were unfairly changed to allow the outgoing leader’s son to run as his vice president.

Anies’ call for a new vote comes a day after Defence Minister Prabowo, 72, was confirmed as the next leader of the world’s third-biggest democracy, beating former Jakarta governor Anies and a third rival with 58.6 percent of the vote.

But his campaign was mired in allegations that outgoing leader Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, had interfered in a bid to establish a political dynasty, engineering rules changes that allowed his eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to run as Prabowo’s vice president.

“We asked for the disqualification of the vice presidential candidate… and we asked for a revote with that said VP candidate being replaced,” Anies’s legal chief Ari Yusuf Amir told AFP.

“We also asked the Constitutional Court to order the president to stop meddling in the next process of the election.”

An Anies campaign staffer told AFP on condition of anonymity that they would “provide the proof of intervention… and let the judges decide what to do with that.”

Earlier, Anies’ legal chief told reporters outside their campaign headquarters that they submitted an “election dispute petition” to the court online early Thursday morning.

Anies’s team has said the complain was aimed at improving future elections and bolstering Indonesia’s young democracy, which emerged from decades of autocratic rule in the late 1990s.

Jokowi was criticised after his brother-in-law, then-chief justice Anwar Usman, issued an October ruling lowering the age requirements for presidential and vice presidential candidates that allowed 36-year-old Gibran to run with Prabowo.

The requirements were lowered to allow candidates under 40 years of age to run if they have been elected to a political position. Gibran is the mayor of Surakarta city in Java.

Anies — who got 24.9 percent of the vote — refused to concede after official results were announced Wednesday, condemning the winner’s route to victory.

“Leadership that was born out of a process tainted by cheating and violations will result in a regime that will produce policies that are full of unfairness, and we don’t want this to happen,” he said in a statement.

Prabowo was widely predicted to win the presidency on his third attempt after losing in 2014 and 2019.

His legal team was confident the result would not be successfully challenged because of his majority and wide margin of victory, local media reported.

Officials from his campaign team did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

He takes over in October after a transition period.

Chief Judge Anwar Usman, centre, presides over the hearing on a petition seeking to lower the minimum age of presidential and vice-presidential candidates at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta, Indonesia on October 16, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Indonesia’s top court on October 16 ruled against lowering the minimum age of presidential and vice-presidential candidates as the country gears up for election in 2024.

The court’s decision is final and can’t be appealed.

In August, seven politicians — including from the Indonesian Solidarity Party chaired by the youngest son of current President Joko Widodo — filed a petition against the current age limit for candidates, asking it to be lowered to 35 instead of 40, arguing it was discriminatory.

The 7-to-2 decision by the nine-judge panel of the Constitutional Court rejected the arguments, saying it wasn’t the court’s role to change the age limit for candidates and that it was up to the Parliament to set such laws.

Two judges argued that while the court should uphold the age limit as is, it could add a special exception to those who “served or been elected as regional leaders”.

Mr. Widodo’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, currently serves as Mayor of Surakarta and has not announced that he would run, but politicians publicly backing former general Prabowo Subianto running for the 2024 presidential election have called for Gibran to become his running mate. Mr. Gibran is currently 36.

Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, is set to vote in simultaneous legislative and presidential elections in February 2024.

High-speed train is parked during the opening ceremony for launching Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway at Halim station in Jakarta, Indonesia, on October 2, 2023. Indonesian President Joko Widodo launched Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway that will start its commercial operations on Monday, a key project under China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative that will cut travel time between two cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes.
| Photo Credit: AP

Indonesian President Joko Widodo inaugurated Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway on October 2 as it was set to begin commercial operations, a key project under China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative that will drastically reduce the travel time between two key cities.

The project has been beset with delays and increasing costs, and some observers doubt its commercial benefits. But Widodo has championed the 142-kilometer (88-mile) railway, which was issued its official operating license from the Transportation Ministry on Sunday.

The $7.3 billion project, largely funded by China, was constructed by PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China, known as PT KCIC, a joint venture between an Indonesian consortium of four state-owned companies and China Railway International Co. Ltd.

The railway connects Jakarta with Bandung, the heavily populated capital of West Java province, and will cut travel time between the cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes.

Its use of electrical energy is expected to reduce carbon emissions.

Mr. Widodo in his opening remarks officially named Indonesia’s first high-speed railway — the fastest in Southeast Asia, with speeds of up to 350 kph (217 mph) — as “Whoosh,” from “Waktu Hemat, Operasi Optimal, Sistem Handal,” which means “timesaving, optimal operation, reliable system” in Indonesian language.

“The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train marks the modernization of our mass transportation, which is efficient and environmentally friendly,” Mr. Widodo said.

“Our courage to try new things gives us confidence and the opportunity to learn and will be very useful for the future, making our human resources more advanced and our nation more independent,” he added.

Mr. Widodo, along with other high-ranking officials, rode Whoosh from its first station, Halim in eastern Jakarta, to Bandung’s Padalarang station, one of the line’s four stations, located about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the central area of Bandung.

He took a 25-minute test ride on the train on Sept. 13 and told reporters that he felt comfortable sitting or walking inside the bullet train even at its top speeds.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang took a test ride early last month while visiting Jakarta for three days of talks with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and other countries.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime and investment, said China Railway has agreed to transfer its technology to Indonesia so that in the future the country’s high-speed trains can be made domestically.

For two weeks leading up to the inauguration, PT KCIC has been running a free-of-charge public trial.

Indonesia broke ground on the project in 2016. The line was originally expected to begin operations in 2019, but was delayed by disputes over land acquisition, environmental issues and the COVID-19 pandemic. It was planned to cost 66.7 trillion rupiah ($4.3 billion), but the amount ballooned to 113 trillion rupiah ($7.3 billion).

The trains have been modified for Indonesia’s tropical climate and are equipped with a safety system that can respond to earthquakes, floods and other emergency conditions. The 209-meter (685-foot) train has a capacity of 601 passengers.

Ticket prices had not been finalized as of Monday, but PT KCIC estimated one-way prices per passenger would range from 250,000 rupiah ($16) for second class to 350,000 rupiah ($22.60) for VIP seats.

Passengers going to downtown Bandung need to take a feeder train from the Padalarang station that will add a further 20 minutes, with an estimated cost about 50,000 rupiah ($3.20).

The rail deal was signed in October 2015 after Indonesia selected China over Japan in fierce bidding. It was financed with a loan from the China Development Bank for 75% of the cost. The remaining 25% came from the consortium’s own funds.

The project is part of a planned 750-kilometer (466-mile) high-speed train line that would cut across four provinces on Indonesia’s main island of Java and end in the country’s second-largest city, Surabaya.

As a global economic giant, China is one of the largest sources of foreign direct investment in Southeast Asia, a region home to more than 675 million people. Amid crackdowns by the United States and its allies, China is expanding trade with ASEAN countries and infrastructure projects are playing key roles.

A semi-high-speed railway — with speeds up to 160 kph (99 mph) — linking China with Laos was inaugurated in December 2021. The $6 billion infrastructure was financed mostly by China under the Belt and Road policy. The 1,035-kilometer (643-mile) route runs through Laos’ mountain ranges to connect the southeastern Chinese city of Kunming with Vientiane, the capital of Laos. There are plans for a high-speed train down through Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore.