Opposition leader contests results of Indonesian presidential poll

Jul 28, 2009, 8:22 GMT

   Jakarta - Opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri on Tuesday launched a legal challenge to election results that gave President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono a landslide re-election victory.

   The General Elections Commission on Saturday declared Yudhoyono the winner of the July 8 election with 60.8 per cent of the vote. Megawati, a former president, came in second with 26.8 per cent.

   Megawati's camp has complained of widespread irregularities in voter lists that it said had prevented millions of people from voting.

   Her legal team lodged a petition with the Constitutional Court requesting that the election result be annulled and a second-round run-off be held.

   A lawyer for the team, Gayus Lumbuun, said it had evidence that the vote had been rigged in favour of Yudhoyono. He did not give details.

   'We believe that the vote counting is invalid,' he said.

   Yudhoyono's other rival, Jusuf Kalla, also filed a similar case with the Constitutional Court Monday. He snared 12.4 per cent of the vote.

   Independent experts have criticized the election commission for failing to address problems in the voter list but said any irregularities were unlikely to affect the result.

   Yudhoyono has said there were minor flaws in the conduct of the elections but denied there was a systematic attempt to rig the outcome.

   His achievement of a majority of the vote meant there was no need for a run-off.

   Unless there is a court decision that reverses those results, considered highly unlikely by analysts, Yudhoyono would be installed as president for a second, five-year term on October 20.

   More than 176 million people were registered as eligible voters but nearly 50 million of them did not vote, the commission said.

   Yudhoyono, 59, has been credited with some successes in his first term, including stabilizing the economy, cracking down on deep-rooted graft and bringing peace to the rebellious Aceh province.

   Analysts said his resounding victory gives him a stronger mandate to pick professionals for his next cabinet and push through reforms as he faces the daunting task of tackling the effects of the global economic crisis.

   However, the July 17 bombings at two luxury hotels in Jakarta, which killed nine people including two suspected suicide bombers, have raised fears of a return of instability to the world's most populous Muslim nation after a few years of calm.

   Police suspect the attacks were the work of Islamic extremists linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant group that has been blamed for a string of previous deadly bombings in Indonesia.