Jakarta – The campaign team of president-elect Prabowo Subianto has urged supporters to cancel a street protest planned for Friday in anticipation of the Constitutional Court's verdict in the lawsuit challenging the results of the presidential election.
Haris Rusli Moti, who leads pro-Prabowo group, said the president-elect had directly called on his supporters to respect the ongoing legal process at the Constitutional Court, saying that they should not resort to placing political pressure on the justices handling the election dispute.
"Prabowo has issued a directive that all supporters and those who voted for the Prabowo-Gibran ticket not to continue with the peaceful protest scheduled for tomorrow [Friday]," Haris said on Thursday, as quoted by Antara.
He added that Prabowo had expressed other concerns during a telephone call.
"As the president-elect, he is worried that the protest could lead to social conflicts and uncontrollable chaos on the ground," said Haris, who was a student activist in the late 1990s.
The Constitutional Court is scheduled to issue its verdict in the election dispute filed by losing presidential candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, who have called for a revote and that Prabowo's running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka be disqualified.
Analysts expect the court to rubber-stamp the official results of the General Elections Commission (KPU), which declared on March 20 that Prabowo and Gibran were the winning pair of the Feb. 14 election.