Jakarta. The two defeated presidential candidates in the Feb. 14 polls have wrongly picked President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as the target in their legal motion to challenge the election result, the General Election Commission (KPU) argued before the court on Thursday.

Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo are demanding a revote and the disqualification of president-elect Prabowo Subianto in their motion challenging the election result.

However, the motion is heavily laden with accusations of widespread fraud by the sitting president, instead of legal arguments and evidence to challenge Prabowo’s victory, an attorney representing the KPU told the Constitutional Court.

"The legal arguments center heavily on the actions by the president with the motion mostly containing alleged violations or frauds by the president and his subordinates,” lawyer Hifdzil Alim said during the hearing.

“The fact is the president isn’t a participant in the current election, nor is he a defendant in this election dispute,” he added.

Despite the serious flaws in the arguments, the plaintiffs insist on getting Prabowo disqualified, he said, urging the panel to dismiss the motion in its entirety.

"Those arguments by the plaintiffs cannot be presented in this trial because they pick the wrong target irrelevant to the motion,” the lawyer said.

Anies has accused Jokowi of conducting veiled campaigns for Prabowo, who picked the president’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as his running mate.  Anies’ legal team said the massive state-funded social assistance programs by the government were meant to influence voters into voting for Prabowo and Gibran.

Ganjar, meanwhile, suspected the president of political interference to make sure that Gibran was eligible to contest despite not having reached the minimum age requirement of 40 when he registered his candidacy.

Separately, Jokowi declined to comment on the ongoing court hearing where his name had been repeatedly mentioned by the plaintiffs.

"I cannot comment on what is happening at the Constitutional Court," the president said.

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