Police say 7 died in Indonesia election rioting

AP  |  Jakarta 

Seven people have died in election violence in the Indonesian capital, police said Thursday, as calm returned to the city and the losing prepared to challenge the result in court.

said several hundred have been arrested and seven deaths were confirmed.

Police, who responded to the rioting with water cannons, and tear gas, deny using live ammunition.

The defeated candidate, former Prabowo Subianto, who also lost to Widodo in 2014, has refused to accept the result and instead declared himself the winner.

Subianto and his campaign have alleged massive election fraud but not provided any credible evidence.

They didn't file a challenge to the election result on Thursday as planned but have until Friday to do so.

The election supervisory agency earlier this week rejected Subianto's complaint about the election's integrity after the only evidence of fraud provided by his team was links to

The rioting in was planned and not spontaneous and many of the several hundred arrested came from outside Jakarta, according to police.

Officers found an ambulance filled with stones and other weapons.

Some of those arrested had envelopes containing 250,000-500,000 rupiah (USD 17-USD 34), said police The minimum wage in Jakarta is about USD 9 a day.

The government has deployed about 50,000 police and soldiers in Jakarta.

Many residents have left the city and parts of the downtown are closed to traffic, with the election supervisory agency and barricaded with razor wire.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, May 23 2019. 20:41 IST