Jakarta – As many as 47,000 personnel from the police, Indonesian military (TNI) and the Jakarta administration are on standby to secure important landmarks across the capital, leading up to the Constitutional Court's (MK) ruling in Central Jakarta on Thursday on the presidential election dispute case.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said that to anticipate any public disturbances, 17,000 TNI soldiers, 28,000 policemen and 20,000 officers from the city administration would be deployed.
"Out of the 28,000 policemen, 13,000 will be assigned in the MK building complex. The rest will be posted at the State Palace, General Elections Commission [KPU] building, Elections Supervisory Agency [Bawaslu] building and a number of embassies," Dedi said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday.
"With such security measures, Jakartans should not be concerned and can conduct their daily activities normally on the day the decision is made."
Previously scheduled for Friday, the ruling will be announced on Thursday. A panel of nine judges had made its decision during a meeting on Monday.
The losing Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno ticket challenged the KPU's vote tally at the court on May 24 in a last-ditch effort to overturn the presidential election results – which placed Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and running mate Ma'ruf Amin as the winner with 55.5 percent of the vote compared to Prabowo-Sandiaga's 44.5 percent.
The court has completed its investigation on all witness testimonies, which were divided into five hearing sessions. (bry)