Jakarta. Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto said on Tuesday that he rejects the official presidential election result and will go to the Constitutional Court to settle the dispute. 

Prabowo's statement came after the General Elections Commissions announced the official results of last month's legislative and presidential elections early on Tuesday, a day ahead of the May 22 deadline. 

At his family residence on Jalan Kertanegara, Prabowo pointed out the odd nature of the official announcement, which was delivered just past midnight on Tuesday.

"It was done silently when people were asleep," the former Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commander said in a cynical tone, which was responded with laughter from a group of his loyal supporters.

Prabowo reiterated he "will not accept" the official results announced by the KPU, arguing that "the vote count was rigged."

"We have said that we will give the KPU an opportunity to fix the [vote-counting] process so that it reflects the [real] result..... But until now there have been no attempts from the KPU to fix it. Therefore, just as we said on May 14 at Sahid Jaya Hotel, we [Prabowo and his running mate Sandiaga Uno] will reject the official result of the presidential election announced by the KPU this morning on May 21," he said.

Constitutional Court Bound 

Since last month, Prabowo has been saying that he is the real winner of the election and that the vote count was rigged. 

His supporters have been calling for "people power" demonstrations to overturn the election result. 

On Tuesday, however, he backtracked, saying he will exhaust all the legal means available for him to challenge the result. 

The four-time presidential candidate said he wants "to defend the sovereignty of the people, whose constitutional rights had been abused in the 2019 elections."

Prabowo won close to 69 million votes in the election and said he will use all the "legal moves" that are "in line with the constitution" to stake his claim for the presidency through the Constitutional Court.

Prabowo asked his supporters to maintain peace and public order, amid plans to stage massive street protests against the result on Wednesday. 

Prabowo has until Friday to file an official complaint to the Constitutional Court. He is obliged to present the court with enough evidence to prove, as he claims, that frauds in the election were "massive, systematic and structured." 

That would mean Prabowo must provide evidence that close to 17 million votes – the difference between his votes and those of his rival, incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo – were the result of electoral fraud.

Hinca Panjaitan, a member of the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno campaign team, known as the BPN, said they will bring any election disputes to the Constitutional Court (MK).

"We will bring [the disputes] to the MK. The deadline is still three days from today," he told reporters on Tuesday at Prabowo's family residence on Jalan Kertanegara in South Jakarta.

Hinca, who is the secretary general of the Democratic Party, one of the coalition parties supporting the Prabowo-Sandiaga presidential ticket, said Prabowo has agreed to settle any election disputes through constitutional means.

"All the allegations are not true. We have already said we will take the constitutional road. That's the only way. Last time, we also filed official complaints to the Bawaslu (Election Supervisory Agency). Anyone accusing us of wanting to use other means is exaggerating," he said.

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