Jakarta – A clash broke out on Wednesday March 27 when two groups of demonstrators were protesting at the Horse Statue in Central Jakarta as the Constitutional Court (MK) was holding a hearing challenging the results of the 2024 elections.
Initially, the group of protesters supporting Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar – one of the loosing presidential election tickets – approached the other demonstrators. Suddenly the two groups began throwing mineral water bottles and stones at each other.
"Woooi ... Woooi", shouted two groups as they throw things at each other. Stones and wood could be seen flying in both directions.
The police tried to separate the two groups by setting up a barricade. As of this report being published both groups were still holding their ground.
The majority of the demonstrators in the group supporting Baswedan and Iskandar were housewives who brought a banner asking the Constitutional Court to annul the results of the 2024 presidential election and to disqualify the winning ticket of Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
"What were the elections for, the ordinary people were lied to. Now is the time for MK, come on, to have the courage to focus on the ordinary people", said one of the speakers.
They said the protest action was to provide moral support to Baswedan and Iskandar.
"In order to maintain their spirit and not give up. We also give our support to the MK justices, we want to save the MK, so that they do not go astray, can make decisions in favor of the value of truth", said the speaker.
The other group held their action not far from the location where the first group was. The majority were young people who brought banners with messages such as "Stop the election fraud narrative", "Respect the election result" and "MK justices don't get a cold".
"The MK don't want to be intervened in, don't be provoked by groups that shout fraud", said a speaker. The speaker also asked where the budget would come from if the election is again.
"Whose money will be used? Will it be citizens? Do you want to give it or not? We don't want to because of the interests of certain groups to annul the elections", said the speaker. (yoa/wis)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Massa Aksi Pro dan Tolak Pemilu Bentrok di Patung Kuda Jakpus".]
