TEHRAN, May 20 - Police rolled out more barbed wire on Monday to tighten security outside Indonesia's election agency and readied armored trucks and water cannons to quell any civil unrest when official results of a presidential poll are released this week.With the General Election Commission (KPU) set to declare its count from last month's election by Wednesday, authorities have detained dozens of militants suspected of planning attacks to create mayhem during demonstrations.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The result is expected to confirm unofficial counts by private pollsters that put incumbent President Joko Widodo about 10 percentage points ahead of challenger Prabowo Subianto.
Although independent observers and analysts have said the poll was free and fair, Prabowo has refused to concede defeat, with his campaign team making accusations of "massive cheating and irregularities" during the vote and vote-counting.
The retired general has said the situation could trigger "people power"-style protests, while the government and police have urged protesters to keep the peace and vowed action against anyone stirring unrest.
Indonesia's election supervisory panel has dismissed two official complaints of election cheating, on grounds of insufficient evidence of violations.
Heavily armed security stood guard outside the election commission in central Jakarta, some accompanied by police dogs.
Last week, chief security minister Wiranto ordered police and military across Indonesia to prevent people from traveling to Jakarta en masse to join protests.
In East Java province, more than 1,200 Prabowo supporters were stopped from traveling to the capital.
"These people were attempting to travel by bus, car and train to join the rallies on May 22," said East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera. "We prevented them."
Source: Reuters
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