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Demonstrations over the outcome of last month’s presidential election gripped the heart of Indonesia’s capital on Wednesday after an overnight face-off between police and protesters in which Jakarta’s governor said six people were killed. The riots followed an announcement on Tuesday by the General Election Commission (KPU) confirming that President Joko Widodo had beaten his challenger, former general Prabowo Subianto, in the April 17 poll. Police have arrested up to 100 people on suspicion of provoking riots.
Prabowo Subianto claimed victory for a third day in Indonesia’s presidential election, dismissing unofficial quick counts showing a win for incumbent leader Joko Widodo. Prabowo claims to have won Wednesday’s vote by polling about 62 percent based on a survey by his campaign team. Widodo, known as Jokowi, declared victory on Thursday, citing unofficial quick counts by about a dozen independent pollsters, which gave him an average 54.5 percent of the votes. Prabowo, who narrowly lost to Jokowi in 2014, has said he has evidence of massive voting irregularities.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo was poised to win another term running the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, even as opponent Prabowo Subianto signaled he would challenge the outcome. Six top private polling agencies had Widodo, known as Jokowi, ahead of the former general by at least seven percentage points with about 90 percent of the vote counted. After losing to Jokowi in the 2014 presidential election, Prabowo challenged the results in a lawsuit that was eventually dismissed by the constitutional court.
At least 50 people have been killed in eastern Indonesia as a result of flash flooding and a landslide, Indonesia’s disaster management said. Nearly 60 people were also injured and sent to the hospital, the agency said in a news release. Search and rescue operations are underway in some of the affected areas. Authorities cannot reach some of the hardest-hit places because of downed trees, damaged roads and detritus blocking their paths.
The collapse of an unlicensed gold mine in Indonesia buried dozens of people, and rescuers dug desperately with their bare hands and farm tools on Wednesday to unearth victims calling for help from beneath the rubble. National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said three people were confirmed dead and 14 have been rescued. “It is estimated that 43 people are still buried,” he said.
The “black box” voice recorder from a Lion Air flight which crashed off the coast of Jakarta in October has been recovered, said officials on Monday. All 189 people on board died when Flight JT610 fell into the sea shortly after taking off for the short journey to Pangkal Pinang. The voice recorder was found on Monday morning but was “broken into two pieces”. “Hopefully it’s still useful [to investigators],” Haryo Satmiko, deputy head of Indonesia’s transport safety committee (KNKT) told Agence France-Presse.
On Thursday, Indonesia’s National Board for Disaster Management raised the warning level for Anak Krakatau to 3, the second-highest rank. It earlier appeared to be calming down following Saturday’s eruption, which caused a 3-meter (10 foot) high tsunami to sweep through the Sunda Strait, killing more than 430 people and displacing tens of thousands.
At least 281 people were killed and hundreds more injured on Saturday when a tsunami hit the Sunda Strait. There are currently 57 people reported missing with the number expected to rise. Indonesian rescue teams and military continue to search the area for survivors on Monday. The tsunami was triggered by an underwater volcano landslide.
The death toll from the Indonesia tsunami rose to 1,234 on Tuesday as residents in the city of Palu faced their fifth day with scare clean drinking water and food. An Indonesian pilot honored an air traffic controller who died in Friday’s earthquake calling him a ‘guardian angel’ for facilitating a safe take off.
The official death toll has risen to 844 after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit Indonesia. Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency warned the toll could increase even more as the affected area is larger than originally believed. Over 48,000 people have been displaced as rescuers struggle with no electricity in the region.