国际英语新闻:Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo lodges challenge against poll result

JAKARTA, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The legal team for defeated Indonesian presidential candidate, former general Prabowo Subianto on Friday submitted an appeal to challenge April 17 poll's result to the Constitutional Court as he accuses the counting was fraudulent.

The electoral commission has announced incumbent President Joko Widodo with his running mate Ma'ruf Amin won 55.5 percent of votes, beating Prabowo who secured 44.5 percent. Widodo obtained over 85 million votes while rival Prabowo pairing with Sandiaga S. Uno got more than 68 million votes according to the poll result released Tuesday.

Prabowo said that the counting had been systemic rigging which benefited his rival Widodo.

"I officially submitted the appeal and evidences to the Constitutional Court," head of the legal team Bambang Widjajanto told the representatives of the court in the court office.

Widjajanto said that more evidences needed will be submitted later to the court.

Previously, Prabowo's running mate Sandiaga said "It is difficult to say that our general election was just and fair. We have received reports from communities who witnessed unjust acts occurring during the polls."

Nevertheless, the commission rebuffed the accusation as independent observers monitored the vote counting.

After the submission of the challenge, the Constitutional Court must issue a ruling on the law suit 14 days after the plaintiff comply with all documents required. The court is slated to settle the dispute by June 15.