YUDHOYONO OFFICIAL VICTOR AS COURT THROWS OUT

UNCLAS JAKARTA 001343 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP NSC FOR J. BADER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM ID SUBJECT: YUDHOYONO OFFICIAL VICTOR AS COURT THROWS OUT MEGAWATI, KALLA LAWSUITS REF: A. JAKARTA 1240 ¶B. JAKARTA 1305 AND PREVIOUS ¶1. (U) This message is Sensitive but Unclassified -- Please handle accordingly. ¶2. (U) The Constitutional Court on August 12 rejected lawsuits filed by losing presidential candidates Megawati Sukarnoputri and Vice President Jusuf Kalla (JK) alleging widespread electoral fraud in the July 8 presidential election and demanding that a second round of elections be held. The ruling, which was widely expected, removed the last potential technical obstacle to President Yudhoyono's re-election, and he thus officially became President-elect. His inauguration will be held on October 20. AS EXPECTED, COURT THROWS OUT CHALLENGE TO ELECTION ¶3. (SBU) Ruling that the losing candidates had failed to provide sufficient evidence to back up their allegations, the Constitutional Court threw out all the legal complaints in the losing candidates' separate but parallel suits. Given the scale of the Yudhoyono victory -- he received over 60 percent of votes to Megawati's 27 and Kalla's 12 percent -- most observers felt that Megawati and Kalla's legal teams had a nearly impossible task. The suits claimed the Elections Commission (KPU) had rigged the election by including 28 million fraudulent names on the electoral rolls. Although the voter lists were acknowledged by the KPU and others both within and outside the government to have been plagued with errors, it appeared from the outset that the numbers involved were not of a magnitude sufficient to have determined the outcome of the election. MOVING ON, MENDING FENCES ¶4. (SBU) With the lawsuits behind them both losing camps have indicated they intend to move on gracefully. Megawati and Kalla both issued statements saying they accepted the court's verdict (with some reservations) and urged their supporters to accept the ruling calmly. President Yudhoyono's camp extended an olive branch, saying the legal process was a sign of a mature democracy and urging everyone to unite for the good of the nation. There are other signs that both Kalla's Golkar and Megawati's Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) are reaching out to the President's Partai Demokrat (PD) to mend fences. Kalla and others from Golkar have put out feelers toward joining the new Yudhoyono coalition. PDI-P has been more equivocal. Although Megawati's husband, PDI-P Chief Patron Taufik Kiemas and some other PDI-P members have made clear their desire to join the government, most analysts believe Megawati's course to date will hold and PDI-P will remain in opposition. HUME