Yogyakarta – Dozens of people from the social group People's Alliance Against Fraud held a demonstration to protest alleged fraud in the 2024 elections in front of the Presidential Palace or Agung Building in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on Friday afternoon, February 23.
The majority of the participants at the action were urban housewives (emak-emak) who wore clothing with shades of red-and-white. They also brought banners with messages such as "Fraudulent Election Result!" and "Disqualify Presidential Pair 02",
They then held a theatrical action in front of the entrance of the Vredeburg Fortress Museum.
The theatrical action featured four men, each wearing a mask who played President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, Widodo's son Solo Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, former Constitutional Court chief justice Usman Anwar, who is Widodo's brother-in-law, and General Elections Commission (KPU) Chairperson Hasyim Asy'ari.
The four were depicted being involved in a conspiracy after which each was awarded a red card. The protesters then moved to the nearby zero kilometre point in front of the central post office where they sounded a traditional wooden danger alarm (kentongan) and signal of death.
Alliance action coordinator Mariana Ulfah said that the action was attended by non-partisan participants from various layers of society who have seen the cheating ahead of and throughout the 2024 legislative and presidential election process.
They accused the current regime of having evil intentions to perpetuate power through mechanisms that have done irreparable harm to democracy, namely by intervening in the Constitutional Court to manipulate the rules on the minimum age for presidential candidates so Rakabuming Raka could run as a vice presidential candidate.
They also suspect that the conflicting election results are an indication of another case of election fraud. The KPU, as the organiser of the 2024 election, is seen as powerless because of the massive pressure from the authorities who want to ensure the victory of a certain presidential candidate.
Furthermore, they also highlighted the KPU's Recapitulation Information System (Sirekap) as a vote counting system that has also been manipulated so it produces voting figures that are inconsistent and manipulative.
"The repeated data input errors are no longer human error, but are leading to what is called structured, massive and systemic fraud", said Ulfah.
The action of striking the kentongan, said Ulfah, was done by the emak-emak participating in the action as a danger alarm and at the same time signifying the death of democracy in the country.
"A kentongan is a symbol of people's security, if in the past, the kentongan would have been a sign of danger. So earlier the sound of the kentongan was a sign there's a thief, a sign of death, symbolically", she explained.
Ulfah said the action was deliberately held in front of the Agung Building because it represents the highest state institution of the presidency. "All of them are responsible to: the President", she added.
The action itself proceeded conducively and was watched over by a number of police officers from the Yogyakarta municipal police and the Yogyakarta provincial police.
Yogyakarta district police chief Senior Commissioner Aditya Surya Dharma said that around 100 joint personnel were deployed to secure the action.
He claimed that they did not provide special security for the action but had previously sent intelligence officers to an action coordinating meeting in Kota Baru, Gondokusuman. The incident went viral on social media because the officers were caught red-handed by the meeting participants.
"We anticipated it would be normal, the police's principle is to secure the action so it can proceed smoothly including providing security for the local community. The problem the other day that went viral has been resolved, it's all been cleared up", said Dharma at the location. (kum/kid)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Emak-emak di Yogyakarta Protes Pemilu Pukul Kentongan".]