Indonesia election: 50,000 votes for Joko Widodo and ally found in diplomatic bags in Malaysia
- Discovery of marked ballots ahead of overseas voting on Sunday casts a shadow over next week’s general election
- A complaint was lodged by a campaign team member of the opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto, says elections committee
The discovery in Malaysia of 40,000-50,000 ballot papers found stuffed inside 20 diplomatic bags and marked in favour of Indonesian President Joko Widodo and one of his electoral allies has cast a shadow across next week’s general election in Indonesia.
The Kuala Lumpur Elections Supervisory Committee said on Thursday the ballots were found in two locations in Malaysia and were marked in favour of both Widodo and a candidate for the NasDem party, which is aligned to the president.
Any allegations of vote stuffing could potentially dent the president’s standing, and how much of an effect the incident will have on his re-election prospects will depend on whether further cases emerge in the next few days.
Malaysia is thought to host more than 980,000 overseas Indonesian voters, more than any other country.
Yaza Azzahara Ulyana, head of the Kuala Lumpur Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), said he had acted on a complaint lodged by a campaign team member of the opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto.