Six die as protesters clash with police in Indonesia

Demonstrations over the outcome of last month’s presidential election gripped the heart of Indonesia’s capital on Wednesday after an overnight face-off between police and protesters in which, according to Jakarta’s governor, six people were killed.

The protests followed an announcement before dawn on Tuesday by the election commission confirming that President Joko Widodo had beaten his challenger, former general Prabowo Subianto, in the April 17 poll.

Crowds swelled in central Jakarta on Wednesday morning and police said they expected more protesters to join them before nightfall. Some of those arriving carried wooden poles and some had smeared toothpaste around their eyes, apparently to protect themselves from tear gas.

The General Election Commission (KPU) confirmed unofficial counts by private pollsters in the April 17 election, which gave Widodo a 55.5% share of votes against 44.5% for his opponent Prabowo Subianto.

Widodo won more than 85 million votes of a total of 154 million cast in the world’s third-largest democracy, but Prabowo told reporters he believed there had been widespread cheating and about 1,000 supporters gathered in Jakarta.

The rally ended peacefully, but later Indonesian police fired tear gas as some protesters hurled fireworks and other objects at officers in riot gear in a main street in the capital, TV footage showed.

The majority of the protesters appeared to have come from outside Jakarta and police found envelopes containing money on some of the people they searched, National Police spokesman Muhamad Iqbal told a news conference.

“This is not a spontaneous incident, this is something by design. There are indications that the mobs are paid and bent on causing chaos,” he said.

Hundreds of students also protested peacefully in the city of Medan, in the north of the island of Sumatra, demanding an investigation into alleged election cheating, TVOne reported.

Prabowo’s legal director has said his campaign plans to contest the result in the Constitutional Court. Prabowo also launched a legal challenge after he was defeated in the 2014 election by Widodo, which was rejected.

On Monday, an election supervisory agency dismissed claims of systematic cheating, citing a lack of evidence. Independent observers have said the poll was free and fair.

Analysts have said Widodo’s double-digit margin of victory means the opposition does not have a strong case to claim the election was rigged, but Islamist supporters of Prabowo could cause considerable disruption.

Islamist groups, many of which support Prabowo, have in the past been able to mobilise hundreds of thousands of supporters.