Indonesia post-election protests leave six dead – Jakarta governor

(FASTNEWS|COLOMBO) -Six people have been killed and 200 injured during mass rallies against the re-election of Indonesian President Joko Widodo, said Jakarta’s governor.

Police said they could not confirm the figure but said they had received information that “some [had] died”,

Protests in the capital Jakarta started peacefully on Tuesday but soon turned violent, with cars set on fire and firecrackers thrown at police.

Police in riot gear fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

At a press conference on Wednesday, police did not confirm the figure given by Governor Anies Baswedan, but said they had received information “that some people [were] wounded and some died”. It remains unclear what caused the deaths.

National Police Spokesman M Iqbal added that 69 protestors had been arrested following the violence.

“We’re concluding from these events that [these] were not spontaneous masses. They want anarchy, creating riots,” he said.

The protests erupted after election results showed Mr Widodo had beaten his long-time rival Prabowo Subianto.

The Jakarta governor said hospitals would conduct post-mortems to determine how people had died.

The country’s General Election Commission confirmed on Tuesday that Mr Widodo had won the presidency, taking 55.5% of votes.

Mr Prabowo has rejected the results, alleging cheating.

The ex-general also lost against Mr Widodo at the last election in 2014, and went on to unsuccessfully challenge the results. (BBC)