Indonesia's defence minister, accused of abuses under dictatorship, is declared election winner
Jakarta (AP/PTI): Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto was announced the winner of the presidential election in the world's third-largest democracy on Wednesday over two former governors who vow to contest the result in court over alleged irregularities.
Subianto, who was accused of abuses under the past dictatorship and chose the son of the popular outgoing president as his running mate, won 58.6 per cent of the votes.
Former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan received 24.9 per cent and former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo got 16.5 per cent, the General Election Commission said. It posted polling stations' tabulation forms on its website, allowing for independent verification.
Subianto said he will respect those who made different choices in the vote.
"We call on all Indonesian people to look to the future together," he told a news conference. "We must unite and join hands because our challenges as a nation are very big."
Subianto has received congratulatory messages from other Southeast Asian nations as well as the Chinese, Russian, French, Dutch and British governments, who all expressed their wishes to work with his new government.
"We look forward to partnering closely with President-elect Subianto and his Administration when they take office in October," US State Secretary Antony J. Blinken said after his victory was confirmed.
About 300 demonstrators held banners and signs criticising outgoing President Joko Widodo for supporting Subianto and alleging widespread fraud. They burned photos of the president with trash near the election commission's compound.
The second- and third-place finishers have refused to concede. On Thursday morning, Baswedan's lawyers filed a challenge to the results in the Constitutional Court. Pranowo also plans a court challenge.
"We do not want to let these various deviations from democracy pass without historical records and set a bad precedent for future election organisers," Baswedan said after final results were announced.
They have alleged fraud, citing the vice presidential candidacy of Widodo's son. Widodo could not run again, and his son's candidacy has been seen as a sign of his tacit backing of Subianto.
Widodo's son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is 37 but became Subianto's running mate after the Constitutional Court made an exception to the minimum age requirement of 40 for candidates. The court's chief justice, who is Widodo's brother-in-law, was then removed by an ethics panel for failing to recuse himself and for making last-minute changes to election candidacy requirements.
The new president will be inaugurated on October 20 and will have to appoint a Cabinet within two weeks.
Subianto had claimed victory on election day last month after unofficial tallies showed he was winning nearly 60 per cent of the votes.
Voter turnout was about 80 per cent, the election commission said.
Subianto won in 36 of 38 provinces and received 96.2 million votes compared to 40.9 million for Baswedan, who won in two provinces. Baswedan, the former head of an Islamic university, won a massive majority in the conservative westernmost province of Aceh.
Pranowo, the candidate of the governing Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, received 27 million votes and did not win any provinces.
Todung Mulya Lubis, a prominent lawyer who represents Pranowo, asserted that election irregularities occurred before, during and after the polls.
Widodo has dismissed the fraud allegations, saying the election process was watched by many people including representatives of the candidates, the election supervisory agency and security personnel.
"Layered supervision like this would eliminate possible fraud," Widodo told reporters last month. "Don't scream fraud. We have mechanisms to solve the fraud. If you have evidence, take it to the Election Supervisory Agency. If you have evidence, challenge it to the Constitutional Court."
The campaign teams of Baswedan and Pranowo said they would provide evidence for their claims.
But Lubis said his team has had difficulty getting witnesses to testify in court due to alleged intimidation by authorities. He acknowledged that successfully challenging the election result with such a wide official margin of victory will be difficult.
The ethics panel that removed Anwar Usman as the court's chief justice allowed him to remain on the court under certain conditions, including banning him from involvement when the court adjudicates election disputes this year.
That means any such cases brought to the court would be decided by eight justices instead of all nine members.
Subianto's campaign highlighted the Widodo administration's progress in reducing poverty and vowed to continue the modernisation agenda that has brought rapid growth and vaulted Indonesia into the ranks of middle-income countries.
But Subianto has laid out few other concrete plans for his presidency, leaving observers uncertain about what his election will mean for the country's growth and its still-maturing democracy.
Subianto lost two previous presidential elections to Widodo, and the Constitutional Court rejected his bids to overturn those results because of unfounded fraud allegations.
This time, Subianto embraced the popular leader and styled himself as his heir. His choice of Widodo's son as his running mate raised concerns about an emerging dynastic rule in Indonesia's 25-year-old democracy.
Subianto comes from one of the country's wealthiest families. His father was an influential politician who was a government minister under both the dictator Suharto and the country's first president, Sukarno.
Questions also are still unanswered about Subianto's alleged links to torture, disappearances and other human rights abuses in the final years of the brutal Suharto dictatorship, in which he served as a special forces lieutenant general.
Subianto was expelled by the army over accusations that he played a role in the kidnappings and torture of activists and other abuses. He never faced a trial and vehemently denies any involvement, although several of his men were tried and convicted.
It's not clear how Subianto will respond to political dissent, street protests and critical journalism. Many activists see his links to the Suharto regime as a threat.
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Deep societal faultlines persist despite 75 years of independence: Justice Ujjal Bhuyan
Judge cites denial of home to Muslim girl, opposition to Dalit women cooking mid-day meals
Hyderabad, February 23, 2026: Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has said that despite repeated affirmations of constitutional morality by courts, deep societal faultlines rooted in caste and religious discrimination continue to shape everyday realities in India.
Speaking at a seminar on “Constitutional Morality and the Role of District Judiciary” organised by the Telangana Judges Association and the Telangana State Judicial Academy in Hyderabad, Justice Bhuyan reflected on the gap between constitutional ideals and social practices.
He cited a recent instance involving his daughter’s friend, a PhD scholar at a private university in Noida, who was denied accommodation in South Delhi after her surname revealed her Muslim identity. According to Justice Bhuyan, the landlady bluntly informed her that no accommodation was available once her religious background became known.
In another example from Odisha, he referred to resistance by some parents to the government’s mid-day meal programme because the food was prepared by Dalit women employed as cooks. He noted that some parents had objected aggressively and refused to allow their children to consume meals cooked by members of the Scheduled Caste community.
Describing these incidents as “the tip of the iceberg,” Justice Bhuyan said they reveal how far society remains from the benchmark of constitutional morality even 75 years into the Republic. He observed that while the Constitution lays down standards of equality and dignity, the morality practised within homes and communities often diverges sharply from those values.
He emphasised that constitutional morality requires governance through the rule of law rather than the rule of popular opinion. Referring to the evolution of the doctrine through judicial decisions, he cited Naz Foundation v Union of India, in which the Delhi High Court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, holding that popular morality cannot restrict fundamental rights under Article 21. Though the judgment was later overturned in Suresh Kumar Koushal v Naz Foundation, the Supreme Court ultimately restored and expanded the principle in Navtej Singh Johar v Union of India, affirming that constitutional morality must prevail over majoritarian views.
“In our constitutional scheme, it is the constitutionality of the issue before the court that is relevant, not the dominant or popular view,” he said.
Justice Bhuyan also addressed the functioning of the district judiciary, underlining that trial courts are the first point of contact for most litigants and form the foundation of the justice delivery system. He stressed that due importance must be given to the recording of evidence and adjudication of bail matters.
Highlighting the role of High Courts, he said their supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution is intended as a shield to correct grave jurisdictional errors, not as a mechanism to substitute the discretion or factual appreciation of trial judges.
He recalled that several distinguished judges, including Justice H R Khanna, Justice A M Ahmadi, and Justice Fathima Beevi, began their careers in the district judiciary.
On representation within the judicial system, Justice Bhuyan noted that Telangana has made significant strides in gender inclusion. Out of a sanctioned strength of 655 judicial officers in the Telangana Judicial Service, 478 are currently serving, of whom 283 are women, exceeding 50 per cent representation. He added that members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minority communities, and persons with disabilities are also represented in the state’s judiciary.
He observed that greater representation of women, marginalised communities, persons with disabilities, and sexual minorities would help make the judiciary more inclusive and reflective of India’s diversity. “The judiciary must represent all the colours of the rainbow and become a rainbow institution,” he said.
Justice Bhuyan also referred to the recent restoration by the Supreme Court of the requirement of a minimum three years of practice at the Bar for entry-level judicial posts. While acknowledging that the requirement ensures practical exposure, he cautioned that its impact on women aspirants, especially those from rural or small-town backgrounds facing social and financial constraints, would need to be carefully observed over time.
Concluding his address, he reiterated that the justice system must strive to bridge the gap between constitutional ideals and lived realities, ensuring that the rule of law remains paramount.
