Jakarta governor wins election

Jakarta governor Joko Widodo won Indonesia's presidential election with 53 percent of the vote, final results from the Election Commission showed on Tuesday.

Delivering the official announcement on the winner of the election vote tally, commission Chairman Husni Kamil Malik said Widodo and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, gained the higher vote.

"Prabowo Sunianto and Hatta Radjasa pairing obtained 46.85 percent of the votes while Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla pairing secured 53.15 percent of the votes," Husni said.

Widodo, a former furniture maker known widely as "Jokowi", had maintained a slim lead of about 4 percentage points in unofficial "quick counts" by polling agencies released after the July 9 election.

But Prabowo, who has declared assets of $140 million and was on his third bid for the presidency, repeatedly claimed that polling firms with links to his campaign showed he was ahead.

"We reject the 2014 presidential election, which is unlawful, and, therefore, we withdraw from the ongoing process," he said.

There were no immediate reports of violence. About 100 Subianto supporters held a peaceful protest about 300 meters from the Election Commission building in downtown Jakarta, chanting "Prabowo is the real president" and holding banners saying that the commission should stop cheating.

The building was surrounded by thousands of police to maintain security, after the particularly nasty presidential campaign. It was the first election that pitted two candidates directly against each other since the Muslim-majority country of 240 million emerged from the long and brutal Suharto dictatorship 16 years ago.

Supporters of both men used social media for personal attacks, and Prabowo's supporters led a smear campaign against Widodo, spreading rumors he is not a Muslim.

Final results showed that Widodo received 70,997,859 votes, 53.15 percent of the nearly 133 million valid ballots cast, and Prabowo got 62,576,444 votes, 46.85 percent.

Voter turnout was 70.7 percent.

Prabowo and his running mate said the electoral process since the July 9 was riddled with massive, structured and systematic fraud.

They ordered their team participating in the vote review to walk out.

Prabowo announced his withdrawal from his campaign headquarters in House of Polonia, East Jakarta.

Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 07/23/2014 page10)